


Pacific Range

by StarsGarters



Series: Pacific Range [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Digital Art, F/M, Feels, Gen, M/M, Past Sex Work, Past Underage, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:05:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 24,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1509848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarsGarters/pseuds/StarsGarters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU Western with tangled history, sagebrush and horny cowboys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chilly wind swept through the endless scrub brush, stunted juniper trees and bright green shoots of tender grass peeking out after the first rains of spring. Quail chicks darted in front of Eureka’s hooves following their drab mother. 

 

The air smelled sweet, washed clean of all the soot and foul scent of too many bodies crammed into too small houses. Sure, there was the unmistakable aroma of cow manure, but that wasn’t as bad as human filth and coal dust.  

 

Hercules Hansen pushed back his battered hat and squinted at the horizon. A plume of smoke cut across the plain on it’s way to the tiny town called Blue Romeo. Named after the school marm’s favorite Shakespearian play, the shabby little hamlet existed only to load cattle and unload people.

 

The Lucky Seven Express was right on time, Herc clicked his pocket watch shut. He patted his restless horse on the neck as it tried to dance to the side. Old Eureka was picking up his nervous energy, Herc tried to relax, but it was a futile effort.

 

The two geldings that he had brought with him to the station nuzzled each other and tried to prance, silly young things that they were. 

 

Unfolding a dusty yellow telegram with work-calloused fingers, he read the words for the thousandth time. MOTHER DIED STOP COMING OUT TO LIVE WITH YOU STOP APRIL TEN TRAIN CHUCK STOP. 

 

It had been ten years. Ten years since Herc had left his beautiful Angela in Chicago to go serve in the Rangers. The enemy was pushed back to Mexico and defeated, but Herc had surrendered his soul to the land. The vast, lush land where buzzards hovered, swooping low amongst the currents. 

 

He found work at Shatterdome Station as the foreman, the man in charge of all the buckaroos. He sent back nearly penny that he made, partially out of duty but mostly out of guilt. 

 

He just couldn’t bear go back to the crowded, soulless city and she couldn’t bear to leave it.  Angela had visited once and cried when Herc asked her to stay with him. 

 

They felt it was best to give their son an education, so Charles had stayed with his mother. He was going to be a civil engineer, he was going to help build cities. 

 

This land didn’t need cities. It didn’t need swarms of people crawling over every inch, devouring what little they found. The train tracks sliced through the landscape like a raw wound, bringing progress whether this land was ready for it or not. 

 

Herc heaved a great sigh and tied his steed to the hitching post, next to the geldings. Time to face his fate, time to see how his son had grown up without him. Herc was selfish enough to hope for forgiveness, but not foolish enough to expect it. 

 

A jumble of people and parcels unloaded from the passenger cars and Herc knocked some of the travel dust from his faded blue shirt with his hat in a feeble attempt to look presentable. His close-cropped red hair and firm jaw attracted the attention of a few of the local working ladies, but he graciously declined their offer of company with a genteel  nod. 

 

There. There was his son. Looking like an Eastern peacock in a fine blue suit that wouldn’t survive a week out in the scrub brush. Chuck’s swollen eye and split lip told a story of an interesting trip. 

 

“Chuck!” Herc called out. “O’er here!” 

 

“Hello, _father_.” Chuck muttered in distaste, “Is this all that there _is_?” With a petulantly curled lip, the young man sneered. The back of Herc’s hand itched, but someone had obviously attempted to correct his son’s attitude earlier and Herc hadn’t become foreman by succumbing to his urges to beat sense into the cowhands in his charge. God knows they tried his patience often enough, but fear of dismissal was usually easier and more effective than violence. And Angela wouldn’t have approved. He was going to do right by his wife, _this_ time. 

 

“No, this is the _fancy_ side of town.” Herc put his hat back on and his gravely dust-choked voice was somber. “I’m so sorry about your mother. I wish-- I wish that I had been there for her.” Bright blue eyes rimmed with think blonde lashes, Herc searched his son’s face for a glimmer of forgiveness.

 

“But you weren’t. Were you, Father?” The sour venom in Chuck’s voice hurt worse than a mule kick to the gut.  

 

Herc retreated into wounded silence and helped load up Chuck’s belongings onto the horses. Chuck silently inspected the roan gelding and adjusted the saddle.

 

Finally, Herc said softly, “We’ve got half a day’s ride to Shatterdome Station. And we have to bring back a new hire, a blonde bloke named Becket. Have you seen a blonde man about your age? Goes by Becket.”

 

“I didn’t get his name before he attacked me.” Chuck gestured over his shoulder at the broad-shouldered blonde lad with the gleaming white smile climbing off the passenger car ladder. “Ill-bred hooligan doesn’t respect his betters.” 

 

Herc’s eyebrows rose in surprise. His son was a right ponce. Well, that would get broken out of him in due time. He might not be striking the lad, but Chuck would get a seeing to if he kept up with that sort of talk around the other ranch-hands. 

 

“Raleigh Becket?” Herc stuck out his hand and was rewarded with a firm handshake and a wide smile.  

 

“Yes sir!” The young man was wearing good boots, well worn and dungarees with a lumpy knit blue sweater under a leather coat. A coil of working rope hung at his hip and his rucksack held a bedroll. Herc nodded appreciatively. This was a _vaquero_.

 

“You Yancy’s kid brother?” The question was a formality because the kid looked just like his older brother. 

 

“Yes sir! You must be Foreman Hansen, why did you come out here to get me? Where’s Yancy?” The blonde’s eyebrows knitted in concern.

 

“Bad news son. Yancy’s got a busted leg, fell off his horse when it got spooked by a rattler, then got trampled. He’s not in good shape, we should hurry back.” Strange how easily the words rolled off his tongue when talking to this kid, when he could barely talk to his own flesh and blood standing next to him. Chuck was a stranger now and Herc wasn’t very good at talking to strangers. That was Captain Pentacost’s talent.

 

“Raleigh, this is Chuck Hansen. My son. From back East.” 

 

The knuckles on Raleigh's right fist were cracked. “We’ve met, sir.” Raleigh tipped his hat at Chuck as if the younger Hansen were a delicate lady. “The pleasure was all mine.” Chuck glared at Raleigh, but held his tongue. Herc decided that he liked the young Mister Becket and tried to not let Chuck see his small, slight smile.

 

“Was it a lively discussion?” Herc wasn’t exactly trying to provoke the situation, but he was curious as to how the boys would react after their confrontation. He checked his saddle before untying Eureka and mounting. The train began pulling away from the station and let loose a wail from the steam-horn. 

 

Raleigh nodded his head slightly while he thought about how to phrase his reply. “I reckon that if you call someone a _low class uneducated hooligan reeking of cow shit_ then you best be prepared to deal withe a low class uneducated reaction.”  Raleigh sat easily on the gelding and cantered off, testing out the horse’s paces. Chuck wheeled his horse to follow Becket and set off faster than he should, eager to show up the blonde man and soothe his wounded pride.

 

Herc sighed and whistled shrilly to get their attention. The young fools weren’t even going in the right direction to get to the station. This was going to be a long ride for everyone involved. 


	2. Chapter 2

Herc was very comfortable riding in utter silence with only the company of his own thoughts, but the two lads jabbered like a couple of magpies fighting over a dead rabbit’s eyes. He smiled at their youthful exuberance, it was just like watching foals play fight. 

“Your ignorance is frightening and there is no way that Jefferson Blacklock would beat Franklin Moore in a bare knuckle match.” Chuck shifted his weight on the saddle and winced. Herc pondered exactly how long it would take for saddle sores to appear and if his son would ask for help or just grit it out. “It is an impossibility! A farce!” 

“Ignorant? Blacklock fights dirty and everyone knows it!” Raleigh jabbed his finger at Chuck, “He cheats!” 

“Poppycock. He merely uses his surroundings to his full advantage!” There was no real heat in his voice, the sting of his bottom and the ache of his face seemed to have subdued Chuck’s temper. 

Since nothing of tremendous importance was discussed, Herc interrupted their bickering. “That’s the Shatterdome Station. Over 100,000 head of cattle spread out over 80,000 acres of land.” He pointed at the horizon. A bright red barn and white house were barely visible against the afternoon sky. “I’ll have you meet the crew when we get there. Captain Pentecost is on business to San Fransisco so you can meet him when he returns.”

“Captain? I thought you said he was a US Marshal in your letters.” Chuck’s nose was already starting to turn scarlet from the sun, of course he didn’t bring a hat. He fidgeted with his sweat-stained green cravat, loosening it. 

“He was. But he resigned those duties. So you read all my letters to your mother?” Herc raised an eyebrow because those letters usually contained explicitly detailed yearning descriptions of carnal acts. Distance separated them, but passionate letters had warmed their hearts in the cold, dark stillness of the late nights. No more letters. Never again. Herc bit his lip and wound the reins a little tighter in his hand, he tried to ignore a sharp pang of grief deep in the pit of his gut. 

“Just the parts Mum would let me read.” Chuck rolled his eyes. “Did you really have to chase down bandits and deserters after the war?” Raleigh perked up and listened as well. It all seemed so romantic when told second hand and in the papers, but Herc looked down at his hands and still felt them caked with sticky phantom human gore. 

“Yeah. We were in the Ranger scout division.” First on the battlefield and last to leave.  
Herc rubs his shoulder where he took a minie ball through the soft tissue. An angel was looking down on him that day, a few centimeters either way and he’d have had an amputated right arm from the shattered bone. The ache of an old wound on cold mornings was feeble penance for what he’d done while following orders. What he’d had to do. He’d never forgive himself.

“So you had to track down bad guys? That sounds exciting.” Raleigh chimed in politely, obviously still thinking about his brother. 

“Sometimes they were just good people on the wrong side. Nothing exciting about it. It was duty. I hope you’ll never have to fire a gun working at Shatterdome Station, but you’ll both be armed.  
Mostly for dealing with rustlers.” Chuck looked confused for a moment, so Herc clarified. “People who steal cattle and sheep.” Raleigh had the good manners to not roll his eyes at the greenhorn. 

“We have sheep too? I thought cattle and sheep didn’t mix?” 

“Usually they don’t. But Captain Pentecost isn’t fond of excluding _hard working_ people and the Russians are good with sheep.” Herc hoped that his son caught his emphasis. The horses scented the smell of home and quickened their pace. “First thing we do lads is take care of the horses, then I’ll show you around and take you to Yancy. Mind your manners and treat your fellows with respect then you’ll fit in just fine. Three squares a day and fair wages. Deal?” 

Both of the young men nodded agreement, Chuck a bit more thoughtfully than Raleigh. Then Chuck spoke and Herc’s heart plummeted into the pit of his stomach. “What happened to Uncle Scott? You said in your letters that you’d explain when I was old enough.” 

Herc panicked and touched his spurs to Eureka’s sides, the mare shot forward and left Chuck coughing on kicked up dust. 

“I reckon you’re just not old enough Chucky.” Raleigh called to Chuck gleefully as he urged his gelding to follow. 

“Shut up! Don’t call me that!” Both of their hearts beat a little faster as their new home drew closer. Chuck was thinking of what his new life would entail and how fast he could save up money to get the hell out of this dusty backwater. Raleigh was only thinking of Yancy and how much time they might have left together.


	3. Chapter 3

Herc dismounted at the barn and slapped his sweaty mount on the shoulder. “Such a good girl. Swift and sure. Beautiful lass. Thank you for taking good care of me. Yeah... good girl.” He murmured sweet nothings and platitudes in Eureka’s ear. She whickered appreciatively and lipped at his shirt before finding the water trough. He took off her saddle and started to rub her down.

 

“Damn. You _never_ talk that sweet to me!” Tendo Choi, the ranch cook, rolled up his sleeves and prepared to milk one of the dairy cows in an adjoining stall.

 

“And what have you done lately to deserve it?” Herc checked each of Eureka’s hooves for stones or bruises and chucked a pebble at Tendo with a grin.

 

“Well I haven’t poisoned your pancakes. _Yet_.”  He whistled cheerfully and patted the cow on her flank when she tried to kick over the bucket, “Whoa Betty! My hands aren’t that cold.” Tendo laughed and squirted one of the barn cats in the face with a stream of milk. The tabby lapped up the fresh milk and was mobbed by the other cats, each licking off the tabby’s milky fur. “Picked up the prodigal son?”

 

“Yep.” Herc doffed his hat and shirt, then grabbed the harsh soap that Tendo made monthly. He filled a bucket with water from the pump and grabbed a rag to scrub off the sweat and dust from his ride. He was tanned and freckled all over, ugly knotted scars traced his skin and told a story of a hard interesting life. But he could still carry a calf under each arm without complaint and bulldog a recalcitrant steer faster than anyone else on the crew. His well-muscled arms and torso had dissuaded many a bar fight and he had most of his teeth.   

 

Tendo raised his eyebrows at the reply that was taciturn even for Herc and countered with, “And Yancy’s kid brother too?” Then he squirted another cat to see it startle and jump. “Oh you love it, furballs.”

 

“Yeah. I wonder why they’re taking so long. They should have been here by now.” Herc ducked his head under the pump stream and scrubbed his curls until the water ran clear.

 

“Did they get lost?” Tendo chuckled, “There’s not many places to go between here and Blue Romeo. Trust me, I've looked. ”

 

“No, I don’t think so. I hope Chuck didn’t fall off...” Herc leaned against the pump and put the soap back in the communal bucket. He shook out the dust from his shirt as best he could and peered out at the trail.

“Are you _serious_? He’d fall off a horse just getting here? Dr Gottlieb is with Yancy, so if he did do something stupid, we can patch him up. ” Tendo poured the bucket of milk into the transport can and screwed the lid on tight. Then he stripped Betty's udders into a cracked blue tin for the cats to swarm. "Greedy little critters, just keep catching those mice trying to get into my pantry." 

“I told you Tendo, he’s city folk. He's _soft_. I did teach him to ride when he was little, but I think he hasn't been on a horse since.” Herc sighed sadly, “He didn’t even bring a hat!” Tendo winced in sympathy then cocked his head to the side.

“Well I’ve got a spare I can lend him if he’s not too much of a fop or a dandy. _Really_ Herc, you could have at least mailed him a list of what to bring.”

“There wasn’t time. Barely got the telegraph before I had to get him." Herc kicked at the ground and looked at his boots. "I didn’t know that Angela had passed… I just didn't know. I thought she was just mad at me and not returning my letters. She did that a few times. Anyways, what’s done is done. He’s a really smart kid Tendo, but I don’t know whether to hug him or kick him in the ass.”

"If I had just had to bury my mother, who raised me, all by myself, then I'd be looking to kick _you_ in the ass. Just sayin' Herc." Tendo's smile was kind.

"Right. Right. What am I gonna tell him about Scott?" Herc put his hat back on and wound his hands in his shirt, worrying the fabric.

"The truth, I would hope. And you better do it before the others do. The Wei kids love to gossip and they're out on the back forty for the week." 

A grunt of assent, but then Herc muttered, "It might be easier that way..." 

"For a man named Hercules, you're awful weak sometimes." Tendo put his hand on Herc's shoulder and patted him affectionately. There were many years of friendship between them and they could always trust each other's judgment. Sure, sometimes when the nights got very cold and a little lonely, good friends could share a bedroll and not look askance at each other in the morning. 

Herc sighed and grimaced. "You only get to talk to me like that because I don't want to eat Aleksis' cooking."

"Damn straight. His biscuits would pass straight through your bowels and make their own hole doing it." Tendo hoisted the milk. "I think I see your boys now. Oh dear. A peacock blue suit. That's gonna clash terribly with my spare hat. You've got to tell him Herc."

"I know, I know." Herc muttered, "But let's get Becket to see his brother, the kid's nearly green with worry."

"Maybe he's heard about those biscuits."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I went there. I loved that line in the movie.


	4. Chapter 4

Tendo headed off to the big house with the milk, there'd be time for introductions later. Chuck's bright blue suit was caked in dirt and the side of his face was scratched up like he'd been attacked by kittens. Lips crimped in a painful grimace, he wouldn't meet Herc's eyes, so Herc waited. Raleigh dismounted and tied his horse to the hitching post. "Come on Chuckles, let's get the horses right." 

"Don't call me that either." But Chuck painfully dismounted and limped over, stiff with pride and followed Raleigh's lead. Herc was pleased to see that Raleigh worked slowly and showed Chuck what to do rather than doing it for him. By the time the horses were taken care of everyone's bellies were rumbling. Tendo would be ringing the dinner bell soon and if you showed up late then you got what was last on the plates. No one could eat as much as a hungry buckaroo and Tendo took it as a personal challenge to balance his larder and fill those bottomless stomachs. 

"Raleigh, come with me. Chuck, do you want to come to the big house or do you want to clean up a bit first?" Herc asked after seeing Chuck look longingly at the soap bucket.

"I'd like to clean up before supper. It's only proper." Chuck hissed through his teeth as he pulled off his suit coat and shirt, then folded them upon the fence. 

"You _should_. After that tumble you took I bet you have dirt lodged in your brain." Raleigh quipped and slapped Chuck on his bare back. They seemed to have settled things between themselves without any help on Herc's part. That was good because these two were going to see a lot of each other until Captain Pentecost and his daughter came back from San Francisco.

Chuck glared back and then stuck a finger in his ear and reamed it around. He grimaced when he saw that Raleigh wasn't really joking. As the others left, Chuck let out a little groan of pleasure at the splash of cool pump water on his sunburned face. He drank deeply, swished and spit upon the ground. His gelding tried to eat his hair, "Oh come on, I don't have enough to share with you. Stupid horse..." 

"So he fell off?" Herc inquired mildly as he escorted the younger Becket brother to the big house. It was a forgone conclusion. 

The younger man bit his lip and hooked his thumbs in his belt. "We _might_ have been doing something stupid." Again, a forgone conclusion.

"Might have been?" Herc chuckled. 

"Something _really_ stupid." The boy flushed red under his suntan. "But he's just bruised. And he was winning before he toppled off. So I figure a little victory might take most of the sting out of the rest of the day." He shrugged. "Sometimes Yancy would let me win."

"Okay then." Pleased at the thoughtfulness of his newest hire, Herc guided him to the enclosed porch where Tendo did a lot of the prep work for meals. Taking up the back wall was a bed holding Yancy Becket with a broad grin on his face. He looked a hell of a lot better than when Herc had last seen him. Herc nodded at Dr. Gottlieb and made a mental note to pay the curmudgeonly doctor a bonus for taking good care of his crew. 

"Yancy!" Raleigh lunged at his brother and fell to his knees beside the bed. He grabbed his brother in a bear hug around the rib cage and buried his face in Yancy's shoulder. The young man's hat fell off and Herc looked away as Raleigh sniffled into Yancy's shirt. "I thought you'd be really sick or dead or something horrible!"  

Yancy patted Raleigh's head, ruffling his blonde hair affectionately. "Hey, little brother. Don't hug me so hard Ray, ouch. My ribs. Really stop! _Ow_!"

Raleigh punched Yancy in the shoulder. "You made me worry!"

Herc approached the good doctor and spoke softly to not disturb the touching reunion. "Dr. Gottlieb, I do believe you are a miracle worker. He looks so much better than when I left." 

Dr. Gottlieb brushed a speck of dust off of his immaculate black suit. "That's because I took away the laudanum. Now he can fully form sentences and make those _jokes_ of his. Nasty stuff, it shouldn't be used for longer than a few weeks, if that. The swelling has gone down and I can now tell that the break isn't as bad as I had first feared. Just the fibula, perhaps a bit of the tibia. But he's young and strong, full of spunk, so he should heal quickly. Some of us weren't so lucky." He leaned on his silver-topped cane. "If he keeps weight off it, he should be fine in 8 weeks or so. I've splinted it, I'll bring by supplies for a proper casting later." Herc nodded.

"So I have to lie here and stare at the ceiling for 8 weeks? I'll die. Of boredom." Yancy wailed. 

Tendo snorted. "Oh no! I can't have that. Here, hold this." He handed Yancy a paring knife. "And this." A large potato. "And look at how nice this bowl wedges right there by your side. Now peel that potato."

"So I'm going to be your scullery slave, am I?" Yancy mouthed the words, "SAVE ME," to Raleigh but the young man shook his head pointedly, then smirked.

"Later we'll put that strong right arm to good use pulling the butter churn paddle rather than what you usually use it for." Tendo shook his head in mock disappointment.

Yancy rolled his eyes. "I didn't do that. I was drugged! I don't remember doing that. It was instinct!"  Yancy flushed a deep red as the crew gathered around him shook their heads along with Tendo. "Ray. Save me." He mock-pleaded to his brother.

"You look like you're in good hands. And I bet you'll make great taters." Raleigh's voice cracked, so he rocked back on his heels and stood up, almost weeping from relief. 

"Everyone enjoys mashed potatoes. I certainly do." Herc laughed, a short bark. It was good to see his crew come together and better to see Yancy speak coherently. "You do everything Tendo tells you to." 

Yancy saluted sharply. "I'll help make the creamiest butter and fluffiest taters you've ever eaten. It will be like eating an angel's petticoat." Yancy's eyebrows raised and he cocked his head to the side while pulling a face of predatory interest, "Now who is this sweet new piece of... _Ooof_!" Raleigh cuffed Yancy upside the ear as Chuck entered the roof, freshly scrubbed. He had taken the time to change his shirt and tie a new pale blue cravat at his throat. Squaring his shoulders, Chuck nodded at the assembled crew and looked at his father for assistance.

"This is my son, Chuck. He's here to help out on the crew while you're laid up, Yancy. And also he's here to do a little tutoring. And that's _all_ you're going to do together." Herc's voice lowered in a warning that everyone understood except for Chuck. Yancy held up his hands in surrender and looked up at Chuck through his long blonde lashes. Raleigh rolled his eyes at his older brother's theatrics.

"I'm _what_?" Chuck looked genuinely confused and seemed oblivious to Yancy's overtures.

"Captain Pentecost thought that since you have all that fancy schooling that he helped pay for, that you could work on the basics with the lads. Quite few of them don't know the basics,  Reading, 'riting, 'rhytmatic."  

"Tendo scared off the last school marm. He proposed!" Yancy nodded sagely.

"I did _not_. And Alice is just on a bit of a vacation to see her ailing mother. Now I don't rule out a proposal in the future, but then you'll all have to eat Aleksis' cooking." A communal groan and Tendo smiled, "That's right, that's right." He spoke to Chuck, "I'm sure you'll do fine. Your father has spoken so well of you. He's very confident in your abilities and he knows that you can do anything you set your mind to." 

Chuck looked at his father for confirmation, Herc quickly nodded and clapped his son on the shoulder. "I'm sure you've got a lot of work on dinner. There's time for yapping later, come on lads." As they left the room, Herc squinted at Tendo and frowned.

Tendo threw stuck out his tongue and said, "You're welcome!"  

 


	5. Chapter 5

A full moon hung heavy and low in the night sky painting the scrub brush with cool blue light. Herc laid back on the ground behind the big house looking for a little peace and quiet from the boisterous crew. He didn't begrudge them their merriment, it was going to be tough work once calving season started in earnest.

He didn't smoke because a penny spent on cigarettes was a penny that could have been sent back to Angela. He didn't drink because it would have been too easy to crawl into the bottle and not come out. Usually he read one of the books that Captain Pentecost brought back on his travels. He didn't understand all of the words all of the time, but Miss Mori was kind enough to help him with the difficult ones. His stomach was full too, though he wasn't looking forward to the bunkhouse after Tendo's famous 3 bean chili. No, he'd probably bunk outside tonight.

Chuck quietly walked up to his father and sat down beside him. "I haven't eaten that much in a long time. Tendo's a good cook." He hugged his knees to his chest and looked up at the stars, until he asked to break the silence. "Which way is north again?" 

Herc pointed at the Big Dipper and how it lead to the North Star even under the glow of the full moon. "Right there. Eventually you'll know all these stars at a glance."

"I know the stories behind them. They taught me that in Classics." Chuck sounded wistful. "There's even a constellation called Hercules, did you know? Mum said it was her favorite, because of you."

"You'll have to share those stories around the campfire. There's only so many times you can listen to Yancy's singing." Sometimes the coyotes howled along accompanying him with his serenades.

"What is with that guy? He looks at me... like I'm a piece of penny candy or something." Chuck rubbed his arms and stifled a yawn.

Herc watched his son carefully for any negative reaction and spoke slowly, deliberately. "Yancy likes pretty things and pretty people. That's one of the reasons he came out here, got run out of town back East for disturbing the peace and contributing to the delinquency of an influential pastor's children. It's not like he did anything they didn't consent to, he's not a rake, but the pastor didn't appreciate walking in on that." Herc shrugged. "Threats were made, bullets were fired and Yancy almost got ridden out of town on a rail covered in tar and feathers." And he'll tell you about it anytime you ask with the biggest smile of peacock pride on his face, Herc thought.

"So he was improper with the lady." Chuck's tone was flat, but not judgmental. There was something else on his mind.

"And the gentleman. But there are many worse people to have at your back than Yancy Becket." Herc sat up. "He's a deadshot for one thing, can shoot the eye out of a crow trying to peck the life out of a newborn calf at one hundred paces and when his leg's not busted he's great on a horse. Used to race for money on his mare Gipsy." And yet, Herc wasn't willing to let Yancy practice his seductive arts on his son. Chuck was too green, too vulnerable to survive that onslaught. A father had to protect his child from the coyotes, even the blonde ones with easy smiles and seductive eyes.

"As good as you?"

Herc smiled indulgently, "Not quite." It was the truth, Herc rode like he was a centaur of legend, born on a horse.  

"You don't have to protect me you know. I can take care of myself. I've... had to learn how." Chuck's voice was tight and Herc choked back his urge to run away. 

"Son, I have no words to tell you how deeply sorry I am that I wasn't there for you. And for your mother." Herc rubbed his temples, "I just couldn't _breathe_ in the city. Even when I go to Reno or Virginia City, my chest starts to ache and my lungs tighten up. I'm just so damn weak. I couldn't go back. Your mother hated it out here, so I wasn't about to force her to leave her home. I'm sorry." He should have said all of this a long time ago. His confession sounded hollow to his own ears. 

"Mum said that you left her for a woman named Nevada. But she always smiled when she said that." His son looked up at the moon and Herc gritted his teeth, choking back his gut wrenching pain. Chuck let Herc compose himself, but then he touched his father's hand and asked, "Father, what happened to Uncle Scott?"

Herc said nothing, so Chuck continued, "He always sent me presents and letters, but then he stopped and it was like he didn't _exist_ anymore. Mum wouldn't tell me and she said that if I asked anyone else about him I'd disgrace the family and she'd beat me. She burnt your letter in the stove. So I stopped asking. He was my favorite relative, and then no one would talk to me about him. I figure that if I'm old enough to be a tutor, then I'm old enough to hear the truth." His reddened face was soft and open, waiting for closure on something that he deserved to know. Herc bit the inside of his cheek and steeled himself.  

"Scott is dead." Chuck nodded, and Herc took a deep breath. "He was selling supplies from the war. War profiteering. Bullets, provisions, medical supplies. I... I caught him. He offered to cut me in on the profits if I would just let him go, but... I couldn't do that." Herc looked down at his moonlit hands and remembered how slippery the guts of his comrades in arms felt when he pushed their entrails back into their bellies. How their lives ran out over his hands because crates of bandages were empty. The screams of pain from amputations performed without the numbing of booze or laudanum. The suffering that Scott caused was immeasurable and unforgivable. 

"So you turned on Scott? But he was your brother, how-?"

Chuck's naiveté grated on Herc and he wanted to throttle the innocence out of the boy, but instead he picked up a stone and threw it out as far as he could into the distance. "How could I? There's family, Chuck and then there's _family_. When Scott and I joined the Rangers we swore to protect our new brothers even though they weren't our own blood. Once you've been baptized in battle, they're all your kin. Scott _murdered_ them as sure as if he had slit their throats himself. And if I have to see my brother dangle from a noose every night of my life, well, that was a price I was willing to pay. If you hate me for that, I-- I will understand."

A loud whoop from the big house sounded and Raleigh Becket staggered out, laughing. "Chuckie-Loo! Come on over! Yancy's going to sing!"

Chuck looked at his father with an inscrutable expression and stood up to join Raleigh, then he turned away and said, "I'm coming! Don't call me that!"

Herc waited until they had walked away and buried his face in his hands.

"Did I interrupt something?" Raleigh asked.

"I... I just wish that I wasn't old enough to hear the truth." Chuck scrunched up his face and Raleigh patted him on the shoulder, unsure of what to do.

"Cheer up, Chuck. Hey, I've got some ointment from Dr. Gottlieb for those saddlesores. Just seeing you walk makes me wince. Won't that be nice?"

"What are you, my moth--" Chuck stopped, bit back his words and said softy, "Thank you. That would be very welcome."

"Sure, sure." Raleigh fought back his urge to go get Herc, to extend the same offer of friendship and camaraderie, but he could see how the foreman's shoulders were shaking with repressed wracking sobs. "Come on, Tendo broke out the cider and you don't want to miss that."  


	6. Chapter 6

The sun climbed high in the clear blue sky and turkey vultures swooped overhead as Raleigh and Chuck did one of the most dreaded chores on the ranch. Mucking out filthy stalls was bliss compared to building infernal rock cribs.

A thankless but essential chore that involved filling up wheelbarrows full of large rocks, then transporting those rocks back to cages made of wood and wire, then filling those cages. The cribs kept the tension taut on the barbed wire fences since fence posts were expensive and easily destroyed by the elements. Barbed wire might have tamed the Wild West, but it was mind-numbing, back-breaking work.

Chuck mopped his brow with a red bandana then stuck it in in his back pocket. Both the lads had stripped their shirts off to save them from the dirty stones and the wire snags. The consistent hard work had trimmed any of the soft city life lingering on Chuck’s frame. He looked just like any other buckaroo now, albeit dappled with freckles like an Appaloosa stallion.

"They don't mention this in the papers back East, do they Chuckster?" Raleigh tossed a stone into the crib, grateful for the gloves Herc had given him. A little kindness that the foreman had shown him in thanks for being a charitable soul with Chuck. Chuck wasn’t a bad kid, sure he was lousy with pride, had a head stuffed full of useless knowledge and when he shared that information came off like a pastor speaking to the unwashed masses on Sunday, but he was decent. Took after his father that way.

"No, they sure don't. This could be one of those tortures that the Greeks devised in Hades. And don't call me that.” The demand was automatic these days and neither of them paid it much mind. One of the buzzards grew adventurous and swooped low above them, verifying their vitality. “Do you think the buzzards are hoping for an early lunch?"

“Well they aren’t getting mine, I’m starving.” Raleigh waved his arms, "Shoo! Off with ya!"

A rock in each hand, Chuck stooped over the wheelbarrow, then he muttered, "Looks like my second shadow showed up again." Raleigh squinted, sure enough the lunch courier had arrived.

"Ray!” And in an arch tone, “Sweet Cheeks!" Yancy waggled his eyebrows in a parody of seduction.

He hobbled on a crutch, two canteens draped around his neck and a lunch basket in his free hand. The hated white plaster cast was ochre brown in many places and Yancy complained about the itching and the smell to anyone who would listen. Dr. Gottlieb had forbidden him from mounting a horse and for a man who was more at home on a saddle than on the ground, that chafed. But not as much as the crutch did. 

Everyone would be grateful when Yancy was better. _Everyone_.

"So I'm _Sweet Cheeks_ today, huh?" Chuck leaned against the rock crib and took a swig of the cool clean water from the offered canteen. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand leaving a muddy smear on the side of his face. "I think I like _Chuckster_ better."

"Oh come on now pretty boy, have pity on me and smile." Yancy wheedled as Raleigh took the basket from him.

"Now why would I do that?" Raleigh was impressed by Chuck’s stony poker face and made a mental note to avoid playing cards with him. That was another thing Chuck had learned or inherited from Herc, not a single tell. And that drove Yancy _crazy_.

"Because those rare smiles warm up my lonely bunk on cold nights and good lord, look at all your new freckles. They're enough to make a saint cry." Yancy looked Chuck over with his usual predatory grin and sighed. Chuck took another swig of water and blankly stared Yancy in the face.

Yancy was going to get a well-deserved punch to the nose, Raleigh thought. And it might not even be from Chuck.

Four weeks into his recuperation Yancy had passed through fits of self-pity, spats of envy and a continuous wail of loudly proclaimed boredom. And now he'd found something that kept that boredom at bay, picking on Chuck Hansen.

Whenever Herc wasn't around, which was often due to some supply issues off at Blue Romeo, Yancy would limp over to wherever Chuck was working on the Station to ogle and needle the lad. Raleigh was sick of it and had already told him to stop weeks ago, but Yancy had rolled his eyes patronizingly and patted his kid brother on the head. “I’ll stop when he tells me to.”

“You’re going to get your ass kicked. And I might just help him.”  

“Ah, so you think he’s cute too? My little brother is all grown up and having feelings?”

“No! I mean, he’s my friend and this is the best place we’ve ever worked. You’re going to get us fired and then we’ll be stranded out here in the middle of Nevada with your busted leg and no references. You’ve already made a name for yourself Yancy and it isn’t Mr. Reliable!”

Chewing on his suddenly tasteless bread, Raleigh frowned at the memory. “Yancy. You should get back to Tendo.”

“But there’s such a nice view, right here. Really Raleigh, he’s bulging in all the right places.” Chuck took another swig of water and continued to lean against the rock crib. He was indeed a delightful specimen, covered in honest dirt and hard-earned muscles.

Raleigh picked up a handful of pebbles and whipped one at his brother, catching him on the back of the hand. “Ow! Stop it Ray!”

“You _get_. Get going. You get out of here Yancy!” Another pebble and another yelp.

“Jesus Ray! Fine! Fine! You are so dead when I’m healed up! I’m gonna dunk you in the horse trough and nail your britches to the barn! You just wait! Ow!”  Yancy hobbled away as fast as he could in a pathetic series of lurches as he coordinated his crutch and limbs. Raleigh sat down and gnawed on a piece of jerky.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Chuck said flatly after several minutes had passed and Yancy was half way back to the big house.

“Do what?” Raleigh chewed on his lunch. “I was just chasing off an old coyote.”

Chuck sat down next to Raleigh, “I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, I know. But he’s my brother and he was irritating the the _shit_ out of me.” They chewed in silence for a while, then Raleigh spoke, “I don’t want your dad to fire us. I like it here.” Chuck nodded in understanding and they ate the rest of their meal. “He’s not going to stop until he gets a reaction out of you. He just has to keep poking at you. And I know you’ve got a temper from the first day we met.”

“Hmm. I was an asshole.” That was as close to an apology as Chuck Hansen got. Raleigh nodded his head.

“I figured that you were terrified of this new place and all that stuff with your father… Shit, that couldn't be easy.”

“I’d just buried my mother. I lashed out, I shouldn’t have. I'll deal with Yancy.” Chuck drained the canteen.  

“No skin off my back, well maybe my knuckles. So don’t let Yancy get to you, he’ll get bored eventually and move on to a new target.”

“Maybe I like the attention,” Chuck murmured almost inaudibly. Raleigh wasn’t sure that he’d heard correctly so he didn't pry. Then they both stood up and continued to complete their task until the sun sat above the horizon and Tendo’s dinner bell rang, echoing off the low hills. 

Something had to be done about Yancy, but Chuck had made it clear that he was going to be the one doing it. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRF8OtySNGrZA5BrqBj9IlRk9X6r8QB0iO__Goup6N6Qqas60GZ  
> That is a rock crib, if you're curious and I HATED MAKING THEM.


	7. Chapter 7

Yancy struggled through the sentence of the faded primer, sounding out each of the words slowly and deliberately. "Jack chased after the dog. Jack ran fast. Jack ate an apple. Jack lost his horse." He stopped and looked at his tutor, declaring flatly, "This here Jack fellow is a real moran." 

Chuck was sitting beside him on a bench in the bunkhouse and he carefully enunciated,  "Jack is a real _moron_ , that's how you say it properly. Just read the next sentence. If you can."

Chuck leaned in close to point out the words and Yancy stifled a hiss. Their denim clad thighs touched and Yancy had to shift his weight due to a sudden swelling in his groin. A lot of his banter had been teasing, he hadn't had any real intention of pursuing Herc's only child no matter how toothsome he was. But dear God, he was only human and it had been a long time since someone had caught his interest so intently. 

"I'd rather geld a stallion with my teeth." He gritted out and closed his eyes as Chuck sat even closer, pressing up against his side. Their thin summer calico shirts did nothing to conceal the heat of their bodies. 

"That sounds inefficiently gruesome. Now, the _next_ sentence." A long freckled finger stabbed at the primer page and then trailed down the page. "Read."

"But I can't concentrate when you're so close to me, Teacher." It was partly a jab, but mostly a plea and utterly the truth. Chuck smelled like Tendo's soap, wood smoke and some sort of foppish pomade. Lord have mercy on him, this kid had no idea what he could do to a man by sitting so close. 

"Yancy, this is part of the deal you made with my father. You can't do much buckarooing, so you get to be my first pupil." Blue-green eyes rimmed with thick ginger eyelashes would be Yancy's undoing and he rebelled. 

"Your first _victim_ you mean." Chuck looked at him curiously, his chin nearly resting on Yancy's broad shoulder and Yancy sputtered out a joke to cover up how hard he swallowed,  "Do you believe in corporal punishment for your pupils?" 

"It depends. My headmaster at the Young Men's Academy for Scholastic Excellence always thought that the carrot worked better than the stick. Do you need proof of the carrot, Yancy?" The little ingrate practically whispered that into his ear, goose-flesh rose up and down Yancy's arms and he shivered involuntarily. 

Chuck smiled and pointed at the primer. "Now, let's try again shall we?"

Yancy's face flushed bright red and he obeyed, mumbling the words a little, but paying much more attention to the book in front of him than the young man pressed against his side.

He _had_ to concentrate on the stupid book with the idiot children and their stupid bouncing ball and dog that couldn't remember where it lived. He couldn't just push the foreman's son up against the bunkhouse wall and taste those pretty lips, shoving his hands up Chuck's shirt and then down his dungarees. But he wanted to. Oh God help him, he wanted to taste every inch of that lad, commit all those freckles to memory with his fingers and hear his posh accent reduced to moans. 

It was almost worth the urge, but Raleigh's accusing words in his head stopped him from acting. He wasn't going to disappoint his little brother, not _again_.  

"Very good Yancy. Very good. Practice this passage and we'll review it tomorrow." A firm clap on the shoulder and Chuck beamed a sunny smile at Yancy that he rarely shared with anyone. "We should go help Tendo, otherwise there won't be any butter for the biscuits."  

Yancy limped on his crutches to the big house in daze, wondering exactly how he had lost control of the situation. In his frustration he churned butter so fast that even Tendo looked at him sideways. "You okay Yancy?" 

 "Just shut up! Let me concentrate!" 

Tendo raised his eyebrows and looked at Chuck who was kneading dough, covered up to the elbows with flour. Tendo thought that just for a moment, a fleeting smile of triumph flickered on Chuck's lips. Chuck absently wiped his hand on the back of his dungarees leaving a white flour palm print on his pert backside. 

Yancy rolled his eyes skyward and started murmuring the Lord's Prayer to Tendo's delight. Tendo was tempted to tell Chuck to take off his shirt and just wear the spare apron, to save his clothes of course, but even Yancy didn't deserve that torture. Tendo would save that for another day.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

The smoky campfire hissed and popped. It wasn't safe to move about on the horses during a new moon, so Raleigh, Chuck and the Wei brothers called it a night and set up camp. 

A dinner of cold beans and cornbread was the best they could manage and Raleigh still managed to singe his finger. As they ate, Raleigh tried to not stare at the near identical triplets. They rode well and could do things with a lasso that didn't seem humanly possible.

Cheung, Hu and Jin sat beside each other and didn't even look up when one handed another the ladle or a knife. It was almost eerie watching them, lit by the fire. Hu caught Raleigh's gaze and said lightly, "At one time you'd have had to pay two bits to stare like that." 

Raleigh looked away, embarrassed at his impropriety. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean any offense. You're just so..."

"Chinese?" Jin laughed and his brothers joined in until tears welled up in their eyes.  "No, it is fine. You don't have a mean bone in your body like the foreman says."

"You're not at all like your brother." Hu chimed in with a smirk.

"Funny, Yancy is so studious these days, always with his nose in a book." Cheung swirled his spoon in his beans. "It must be all those private lessons. You're a gifted teacher, Hansen."

"Very hands on." Jin and Hu said in unison. 

Chuck choked a little on his water and asked, "So what's your story? Where do you hail from?"

"Hong Kong. We came over as children. Our parents were merchants and they saw a good opportunity." 

"Come look at the identical triplets!" 

"Eighth wonder of the world!"

"Freak show gold." They spoke in a strange stream of consciousness, each finishing the other's thoughts. It was hard to track but Raleigh and Chuck found themselves entranced.

"So we eventually wound up in a circus." Hu twirled a knife expertly and flipped it end over end before throwing it into a stump. "I was the knife thrower." He walked over and pulled it out with a hearty yank. 

Jin juggled some stones in one hand and shrugged. "I'm not to be trusted with sharp pointy things. So I'm a juggler." 

Cheung shook his head, "I'm not swallowing swords tonight," Chuck choked again and had to excuse himself after Raleigh slapped him on the back. "And a little fire-eating."

"But then we heard the big money was out building the railroads so we tried that." Jin groaned.

"Didn't work out for you?" Chuck chimed in.

"We weren't too fond of dying."

"Nasty work. Explosions and typhus."  

"So we were going to bail when we got caught and Captain Pentecost bought out our contracts." 

"So we work for him now and that's a whole lot better than dying. Even get to go visit the ladies in Blue Romeo. They like the novelty." A simultaneous sigh.

Raleigh couldn't help asking, "You, don't... You don't all go in the whore house _together_ do you?" 

"Not in the same bedroom no!" Jin shook his head. "And really you have to pay extra for that." 

"Well there was that one time." Cheung laughed. "She couldn't tell us apart!"

"We were _really_ drunk." Hu explained rather lamely. 

"So Raleigh have you visited town yet? We can introduce you to our favorite ladies." 

"I'm saving my money, but I appreciate the offer." The triplets pointedly did not ask Chuck, but Raleigh chalked that up to them respecting Herc. Not everyone was out to corrupt Chuck Hansen and Raleigh reminded himself that he wasn't the kid's protector, no matter how many scrapes the pompous ginger got himself into. 

After the fire died down, everyone rolled out their bedrolls and tried to find a spot on the ground that wasn't gnarled with roots and studded with rocks. The brothers passed out immediately, snoring in tandem. Raleigh shook his head in bemusement. "'Night Chucko."

"Good night and don't call me that." Chuck curled up in a ball, still not comfortable sleeping on the ground. "God I miss my mattress. One blanket is not adequate."

"Oh quit belly-aching." Mattresses always seemed too soft for Raleigh. He folded his hands on his chest and laid back against his saddle bag. The horses whickered and cropped at the grass around their picket. He looked up at the stars, bright and crisp and traced the path of the Milky Way across the sky. So beautiful. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Until he woke up to a very warm body pressed up against his, one arm draped across his chest, hot breath in his ear. "Err, Chuck?" Raleigh sleepily murmured. 

"Shuddup." Chuck muttered and scooted closer, wrapped up in his blanket, his cold nose pressed into Raleigh's stubbly cheek. 

"What are you doing?" Raleigh feebly protested, not wanting to wake the Wei brothers and suffer their endless jibes. He'd rather just lie here than endure their eternal teasing. And of course they'd tell Yancy and Herc. Nope, he was just going to take it. He frowned. 

"Cold. Shuddup. Stop wiggling. Shuddup." Chuck's leg looped over Raleigh's, effectively pinning him down. 

Raleigh sighed and closed his eyes, but it was like sleeping with an octopus. Chuck's hand roamed all over his body and when Raleigh was about to protest, Chuck uttered a loud snore and started drooling on Raleigh's shirt. Now there was a large cold wet spot on Raleigh's chest. Okay, Chuck was now more like a puppy than an octopus.

Raleigh looked up at the sky again and gritted his teeth with a hiss when Chuck's arm flopped down on his groin. When he picked up Chuck's limp arm and moved it away from his smarting cock, Chuck started talking in his sleep. "You're so _beautiful_." 

"Thanks?" Raleigh didn't quite know what to say. Was Chuck talking to a memory of an old girlfriend back East? Maybe the sleeping man would say something incredibly embarrassing that Raleigh could use later. He was running out of new variations on Chuck's name to tease him with. 

"Pretty blonde. So pretty." Raleigh stifled a laugh. "Like my Achilles..." Now he was talking about that Greek stuff again, Raleigh tried to remember who this Achilles character was.

"Oh yeah. That's right Yancy, you take it. You take it like a good boy..." _Yancy_? 

Raleigh rolled Chuck off of him and decided that it was time to check on the horses. When he returned Chuck had stolen his bedroll, the ginger lad was curled up with two blankets and a faint happy smile. Raleigh stalked over to the Wei brothers who slept like proper gentlemen and laid down on the bare ground with his saddlebag for a pillow. 

Why did everything have to be so complicated? 


	9. Chapter 9

 

The ride home had been in weary silence, everyone looked forward to a hot meal and a much softer bed. Except for Raleigh. He was missing a blanket but he didn't ask for it back. He was going to make Chuck explain that whole oddness one way or another. He'd never had a man be so intimate with him before and he felt like the axis of his world had suddenly tilted. It was nothing, he told himself over and over again. He was just a warm body, a fucking pillow. Damn Chuck Hansen, he should have hit him _harder_ on the train.

Yancy had limped on over to be  _helpful_  which was strange in itself and he spoke animatedly about the story that Chuck had assigned him.  It was something about myths and heroes, Greek again, of course. Raleigh frowned sourly. 

Unpacking their saddle bags, Raleigh kept glancing over at Yancy and Chuck who were chatting while the horses got settled. _Chatting_... such a dramatic difference from their earlier antagonistic interactions, how blind had he been? Yancy ducked his head, ran his hand through his blonde hair and grinned at a compliment Chuck gave him. 

"What crawled up your ass, Ray?" Yancy asked, running a brush over Striker's withers. Raleigh didn't like feeling manipulated and he had a sinking feeling that Yancy was in this debacle up to his elbows. 

Raleigh bit back a sharp retort. "Nothing. So, enjoying those lessons? Learning to read real good?" 

"Real _well_." Yancy beamed, "I feel a bit cultured now, y'know? This reading is really entertaining stuff. I can see why Herc does it all the time. And Chuck says I have a natural aptitude for taking instruction." He bit his lip, "I think that means that I pick things up quickly."

"Is that _all_ that you're taking?" Raleigh asked pointedly, thinking about what Chuck had uttered in his sleep.

Yancy rolled his eyes and pulled a dramatic face. "Yes. _Unfortunately_. All my charm is in vain. It's like the kid is made of ice or something. Sometimes he looks at me and think there could be something there, but maybe I'm just pent up and thinking with my cock." Yancy shrugged, "I'm being good, I don't want to disappoint _you_." His face was open and honest, but he looked a bit crestfallen. "This is a really good book though, I read more of it than Chuck told me to, I mean it is _that_ good."  

Feeling a bit vindictive, but also tired and sore Raleigh loaded his saddle up on his shoulder to take it to the barn. "Come on, did you start up the boiler? I'm dying for a hot scrub."

"Oh, I think Chuck's in there already." Of course he was.

"I'm sure he won't mind, I have something to ask him anyway. Of an academic nature." 

Yancy shrugged. "He better get out soon though, because I see the Russians trundling up the way." He whistled loudly to get the Wei Brothers' attention. "They're back!" Raleigh saw a small shepherd's wagon hooked to a pair of mules approaching the Station. "Sasha doesn't care who's in the bathhouse. _Ever_."

"Who is Sasha?" Raleigh settled his saddle on the rack and had the sinking feeling that he was getting screwed out of anything hot if he didn't hurry. But Yancy didn't answer, he was hobbling off to greet the Russians with great enthusiasm. 

Raleigh dashed over to the small bathhouse and ducked inside after shedding his clothes in a pile outside the door faster than he'd ever gotten undressed before. The tub was on a platform and filled with a very well-scrubbed Chuck Hansen who looked Raleigh up and down with a quizzical expression. "I don't think we're supposed to share." He said after a moment, his eyes resting just a bit too long on Raleigh's cock. 

Raleigh pointed at the door. "Out! If I don't get this dust off me, I'm going to itch to death." He was angry too. Angry at Yancy for being such a twitter-pated fool, angry at Chuck for leading his brother on and angry at himself for being a trusting fool. And he was _still_ missing one blanket.

"The water is dirty." Chuck stated lightly and Raleigh had the notion that he was stalling, maybe he'd drag Chuck out of that tub.

Raleigh crossed his arms and glowered. "If you don't get out right now, I'll do something you'll regret."

Chuck leaned on the edge of the tub and cocked his head to the side, studying every inch of the angry blonde. "What will I regret Raleigh?" He nearly purred. 

"I'll tell Yancy that you call him 'your _Achilles_ '." The gobsmacked look on the ginger's face was priceless.

Chuck's mouth opened once or twice and finally he said, "Do you even know who that is?" 

Raleigh had no idea. It had been the second thing Chuck had said that had confirmed his dire suspicions. " _Herc_ does. And Yancy has no trouble asking your father _anything_. Especially if he feels like someone is pulling the wool over his eyes." 

"I haven't done anything with your brother that is untoward." He ducked his head in the water and scrubbed his red hair, when he came back up Raleigh was still there naked and glowering.

"Oh but you know he wants to." The expression on Chuck's face was curious and inscrutable.  How had he gone from being furious to begging? "Please stop. It's just not worth it. You're going to leave here and he'll be crushed. Stop teasing him. He's got the softest heart in Nevada and he wants you more than his next breath of air and it is  _killing_  me to see that." Was he just concerned about Yancy or was he upset about something else? He shoved that little voice of doubt deep down inside.

"Well, I wouldn't want to kill my next pupil, would I? That's a joke Ray. A joke." It didn't sound like a joke.

"I don't like your jokes lately. And I'm not taking any lessons from you Chuck. And I'm not your damn pillow either. And you don't get to call me _that_!" 

Chuck stood in the shallow tub of water, rivulets of water streamed down his muscled frame and collected in the pit of his ginger-furred groin. He was impressively built there as well, if you cared about such things. Raleigh averted his gaze for modesty's sake as Chuck stepped out. The young man stood far closer than he needed to and he whispered in Raleigh's ear, "It's all yours." Raleigh could feel the heat of the bath radiating off Chuck's skin and he cursed himself for being so vulnerable.

Hansen grazed Raleigh's backside with the back of his hand. "This place is too small, no room to maneuver. I'll ask father if I can enlarge it. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Hardly any place on the Station with any privacy." Chuck said brightly as if there was no tension, no conflict, then he left the bathhouse.

Raleigh climbed into the tepid tub and scrubbed himself raw, trying his best to ignore his massive erection bobbing in the water. Damn Chuck Hansen. Maybe he'd take the Wei Brother's up on their offer after all, he obviously needed to be with a woman. And soon.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Herc ventured off to the bathhouse to warn the poor soul who was in it about Sasha's imminent arrival. He leaned against the fence and watched Raleigh Becket dump the tub in the waste water ditch. " _Motherfuckinggooseshitdabblinghorsepissguzzlingfuckingfuckfucker_!" Herc had never heard Raleigh curse a blue streak before and he laughed. 

"I'm surprised the whitewash hasn't blistered! What's wrong Becket?" Herc stoked the boiler with a few more pieces of charcoal and helped pour in water that Becket had already transported from the pump. The young man ran his hands through his hair and shook his head, "Just stubbed my toe, boss." 

"Thanks for getting this all set up, that was considerate of you. Yancy forgets more often than not. Are you sure that your brother raised you or was it the other way 'round?" Herc smiled and clapped Raleigh on the shoulder. "Come on, best be getting back to the big house. It's always a kick when the Russians come in for a supply run and a good meal. Yancy's already talking their ears off about his fancy new education." 

"Why _did_ you hire my brother?" Rals asked, shaking water off his hands. "He doesn't work any harder than he has to." 

Herc looked at his boots and chuckled. "Well you could say he got me out of a tough spot in Virginia City."

Raleigh was a damned good listener, he didn't have to say a thing and Herc found himself elaborating. "I was a little drunk. Trying to kill what was left of my guilty conscience. Family matter. So I ended up getting the shit beat out of me in an alley behind the Bucket of Blood saloon. And out of nowhere, your brother picked up one of the toughs and threw him into a cesspit. Then he socked the other in the jaw and put that big old boot in the last one's crotch. I still remember him yelling at them, "You have to respect your elders you assholes!""

Raleigh smiled in spite of his foul mood. "That sounds like Yancy." He pulled on his shirt and shut the bathhouse door, then walked with Herc. "He does have his good qualities. Sometimes."

*

What Herc didn't tell Raleigh was that Yancy had half-carried him back to his hotel room and dropped him on his bed. "Look at you! Such a mess. Look at those pretty blue eyes, you're going to look like a right raccoon in the morning." The blonde man tsked tsked under his breath. 'Such a shame."

"I'm fineeee. Just a little OW." Herc slurred in protest as Yancy grabbed a bottle of Mercurochrome and daubed at the multiple cuts on his face.

Yancy rubbed his thumb over Herc's lips and cooed, "Shush. Can't have a fine man like you all cut up, you'll bleed on my sheets." Herc's cock stirred at the soft, sweet touch and soon there was visible evidence of his arousal captured under his denim. 

"Fine man, huh? I thought you were a Good Samaritan." Yancy looked down and brushed his hand over Herc's stiffness. 

"Well, I'm not _that_ good." He closed Herc's eyes and blew a stray eyelash away. Herc didn't bother to stifle his groan. Yancy's easy smile and hard body pressed up against Herc's side felt too deliciously good. "I'm Yancy. Now let me get your boots off, old man. You're filthy and these are nice blankets." Herc surrendered to his rescuer's tender ministrations. 

"Herc. My name is Herc." One boot hit the floor, the other followed with a thump.

"That sounds like what a cat does with a hairball, _Herc_." Herc laughed even though it made his ribs ache. He clutched his ribs and grimaced. "Now the shirt. Have to make sure you're okay, don't we?"

"Do you always rescue strangers or am I special?" His shirt was on the floor now and Yancy gently shoved him to lay back on the bed.

"To be honest, Herc, I was watching you from the moment you swaggered into that saloon, just waiting for an opportunity to introduce myself. I'd love to play the knight in shining armor, but I'm more of a rogue. And you are the prettiest thing I've seen all damn day. Well, you _were_ before you got the shit kicked out of you." Yancy ran his fingers through red curls. "But I've got a good memory."

"So you want to fuck me, is that it Blondie?" What kind of lecherous guardian angel was he?

Yancy answered with a cheerful smile, "From the moment you walked into my life Red."

The fastener on Herc's denim dungarees was expertly opened with nimble fingers. Yancy stripped him of his pants in one fluid motion and smiled admiringly. The younger man ran his fingers down Herc's chest tracing the scars, lingering over the tender scar-gnarled shoulder wound. "War wound?" 

"Pissed off my wife." 

"With what you're packin' here? I _doubt_ it."

Herc wound his fingers in the sheets as Yancy explored his hard cock with his talented mouth, milking the turgid flesh with fingers and tongue. Herc's eyes rolled back in his head in pleasure while the clever lad took his time, delaying his release, enjoying the taste of Herc's skin and teasing the slit with the tip of his tongue. 

"Oh for mercy's sake!" Herc groaned and shuddered, shooting hard into Yancy's eager mouth.  Yancy patted Herc on his flat firm belly, leaned over and spat into the pisspot. 

"Now pretty man, what are you going to do for me--" But Herc had passed out from the booze, the trauma of his injuries and the bliss of Yancy's small kindness so he never heard Yancy laugh ruefully and crawl into the bed beside him, whispering kindly, "Don't puke in my boots, that's all I ask." 

Herc had apologized to Yancy when he awoke hungover and remorseful. Yancy had shrugged and offered to continue with what they started, but Herc had countered with a job offer. Herc never regretted that decision and Yancy never fully mentioned exactly how they had met. It was better that way and they both respected each other. 

But late at night when he'd taken himself well in hand, Herc still smiled at the sweet memory of Virginia City, the only time he'd enjoyed a trip to the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://www.bucketofbloodsaloonvc.com/gallery4.htm  
> The Bucket of Blood is a real place. (beware the autoplay music)


	11. Chapter 11

Raleigh couldn't help staring at the massive mountain of man that was Aleksis Kaidanovsky. He had to dip his dark-haired head to avoid braining himself on the door-frame. He was wearing, of all things, a wolf pelt over his clothes and would start stroking it when he caught Raleigh's eye. Raleigh exactly didn't look away, but he became very interested in his food. 

But as eye-catching as the tall Russian was, his wife Sasha was like a queen holding court. She spoke much better English than her mate and her pale blonde hair hung down her back in a freshly-washed plait. She wore breeches and a blue calico blouse. "Now tell me about yourself, Chuck Hansen." She sat next to him on the bench, pushing Yancy away with her hips and leaned in close. "How did a man of culture like yourself end up in the middle of Nevada?" She propped her hand on her chin and stared in Chuck's eyes. 

"My mother passed and I came out to live with my father." Chuck sounded genuinely sad, and Raleigh had to remind himself that Chuck was still grieving. Not just for his mother but for his favorite uncle. Yancy had told him that terrible tale late one night. Raleigh respected Herc immensely for living with that decision. He couldn't conceive of a life without Yancy, even if he was a fool thinking with his cock all the time. 

It had been years since their mother had died in childbirth with their only sister. Their drunkard father had left them without food or money to starve in the ramshackle homestead.

The neighbors three miles away had taken them in one cold, stormy night. Yancy was carrying him in his small arms, cold and soaked to the bone. It took weeks for Yancy's bare feet to recover from the stone bruises and cuts.  They were a pathetic sight knocking on the door and begging for charity.

The next day, they all went to the former Becket homestead, stripped it of all it had and moved the boys in. Raleigh had always been grateful to the Morse family and their charitable nature. He worked as hard as he could to pay his way and genuinely loved his foster family. Did Chuck have someone who took care of him after his mother passed? He'd never asked.

"Who did you say you stayed with back East, Chuck?" Raleigh piped up. Chuck raised his eyebrows because Raleigh had just used his correct name. Raleigh was still not over their encounter in the bathhouse.  

"I stayed with the Headmaster at the Young Men's Academy with the rest of the students." 

"Ah, so the bunkhouse is not so much of a change for you! All those sweaty, stinky boys! But I _like_ boys. They make the time pass, so much fun to play with. You know what I am talking about, right Yancy?" Sasha elbowed Yancy in the ribs so hard he spit his milk back in his mug. 

"Damn it Sasha. And yes, they are all very smelly and stinky." Yancy wiped his mouth. "Aleksis, I have to ask, what's with the wolf pelt?" 

The big man started to speak and Sasha interrupted him, "He caught that wolf trying to eat one of our yearlings! I was looking for my gun, but my man grabbed his hammer and bashed that wolf between the eyes. Brains out the ears! Brains everywhere! No one is stronger than my man here, not even wolves." She preened with pride and Aleksis blushed red, smiling sheepishly. 

"Da." He confirmed and slathered his biscuit with butter. More stories were shared, but nothing beat the man who killed a wolf with a hammer.

Raleigh was up to his elbows in soapy water at the kitchen pump when someone grabbed the cheek of his ass and gave it a squeeze. "Goddamit Chuck! You handsy goatfucker!" He exclaimed, nearly dropping Tendo's favorite china coffee cup. He glared over his shoulder at the groper. 

"Such a tight seat." Sasha sighed appreciatively, she played with her plait and ran her hand down his back.

Raleigh looked around for the wolf-pelt clad behemoth because he had the sinking feeling that he was going to get pummeled. "Sorry for the language. I thought you were someone else, ma'am."

"I heard. So I should not waste my time on the Hansen lad then? He prefers the company of sweaty, stinky boys? Or just one of them?"

"I reckon I don't know what he prefers ma'am. It's none of my business." 

"So _discreet_. You're welcome in my wagon Mister Becket, I'd love to show you how _tight_ a fit it is." Sasha took one last grope with both hands just for the sheer pleasure of it and gave him a little kiss on the side of his neck. Then she sauntered off to terrorize someone else, breeches clinging to her hips like a promise.

Raleigh blinked, shrugged and was pondering his life choices when Tendo came to get the dishes. "So, you've met Sasha. Was it a one ass cheek greeting or two?" 

"A full handful, Tendo. I think she measured me for my next pair of pants." Raleigh laughed.

Tendo stacked the dishes carefully in a crate and seemed to be pondering something, he sighed and said,  "Just in case you're thinking about visiting her in that wagon, so she can _check your inseam,_ you might want to know that her invitation includes Aleksis. And he likes to be an _active_ participant." 

"What?" Raleigh eyes bulged. "How do you? Do I even want to know?"

"You're a good kid, I'd hate to do you wrong Raleigh. And I know because I accepted that invitation once. Once!" Tendo smiled enigmatically. "Wasn't too bad. Wouldn't do it again sober." He hoisted the crate, "Come on I saved you a piece of pound cake." 

Raleigh bit his lip and Tendo stared him down, "You're not thinking about it, are you?" 

"No! No! No! Okay _maybe_." Tendo handed him the crate of dishes. 

"I'm going to keep you so busy that you won't even have the option of making that decision. Yancy hasn't been churning enough lately, something about private lessons with Chuck." Raleigh's eye rolled skywards. "Don't worry kid, you're next to get dipped in a little culture. Dipped, battered and fried."

 

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

Yancy sauntered out to the wagon, doing his best to help load supplies. He didn't like being an invalid and Dr. Gottleib had given him some bad news while the boys were off on the range. His leg hadn't set completely and he was going to have to wear another damn plaster cast for another 4 weeks. He hadn't told anyone but Herc, who clapped him on the shoulder and reassured him that he'd still have a place at Shatterdome Station. 

But Yancy started to fret thinking about when Captain Pentecost returned. "What about the Captain?" 

"He trusts my judgement and he won't be back for a while. I got a letter. They haven't had any luck getting Miss Mori into a conservatory or a ladies' academy. Damn shame. Talented girl and they can't see past the color of her skin." Herc grimaced. 

"Don't worry Yancy. You're not my blood, but you're my _kin_ and I watch out for the _kin_ that I chose." Herc gave Yancy a rare one-armed hug. "Don't ever forget that. And speaking of blood, how's Chuck? Surly as ever? Bit of a pompous ass?" One of the sweetest asses Yancy had ever had the pleasure of ogling, but that's not something you tell a father.

Yancy tried not to tense up, "He's a harsh taskmaster. Seems like the only joy he gets out of life is making sure that I'm staring at tiny printed words and then understanding what they mean." Yancy scrambled for any bit of approval from Chuck and those rare glimpses made Yancy feel better about himself. He wasn't the brightest, he wasn't the best fighter or horseman, but he was stubborn and Chuck was an intriguing enigma. 

"That's called _reading_ son. You can't rely on your looks forever," Herc barked a laugh. "God knows I tried. Eventually you've got to learn some things, especially if you're going to take over for me when I'm too old to chase a steer." 

"My looks got me all the way out to Virginia City." Yancy replied, slightly wounded. He was a vain creature.

"Just your looks?" Herc raised his eyebrows.

"Well. I didn't have any complaints." He pursed his lips, then ran his tongue over the bottom one and bit it. "I was making decent money."

"You were a bad whore son, you gave the product away. I know." 

Yancy pleaded, "Shush, I don't want Raleigh to know about that. Those were _interesting_ times." They were getting close to the others, Raleigh was playing with the sheepdogs and Chuck was checking out an axel with Aleksis. "I don't want... to disappoint them." 

"Them?" Herc asked but was ambushed by a black and white dog who was looking for a stick to be thrown. "Aww, hello Tango! Go get it!" Herc heaved the stick away and the spotted dog ran after it. "Any pups this year Aleksis?" Working dogs were always welcome, they herded sheep of course, but were also good with cattle. 

"One. But it is not well." Aleksis pointed at a basket hanging on the wagon. Chuck rubbed his face and got a smear of black axel grease across his forehead. He peeked inside the basket and Yancy's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. Chuck's face lit up with joyful glee and he wiped his palms on his pants. 

"Oh _hello_ there..." He softly said and picked up the grey puppy in the basket. It was tiny and had stubby short legs with a stubby short tail to match. It looked nothing like its long-legged collie mother. "How are you going to run on those tiny legs? Look at these tiny legs. Just look at them." He pointed at the puppy's legs and grinned at Herc and then at  _Yancy_. 

"We think Tango had an affair. Not sure what to do with pup that cannot run fast enough to keep up with the mules." Sasha goosed Raleigh and he squeaked in undignified surprise. 

"Is it weaned?" Chuck asked. "Poor little thing. Out of place, all alone." The pup gnawed on Chuck's finger and whined.

"Just barely. It will need constant care, sickly little thing." Sasha shook her head, "But that is life, yes?" 

"I'll be out on the range too much then..." Chuck's delighted face dimmed and his shoulders sagged. 

Yancy spoke up, "I could... I could watch it for you." Chuck looked at him with unbridled hope and stars in his eyes. Doomed, Yancy thought. I'm doomed.

"But you'll be out of your cast soon." Raleigh spoke, ever the pragmatist. 

"Nope. Doctor's orders. Another month of being useless." Yancy shrugged. "I might as well help out."

Herc clapped Yancy on the back in approval and Yancy rubbed his fingers in his blonde hair, flushed with embarrassed gratitude. "You've really become a good man, Yancy. 'Bout damn time." Herc said softly, so the others couldn't hear. Yancy knew better, his motives were purely selfish. All he wanted was to see that young man smile at him like he smiled at that ugly little puppy. 

Chuck cradled the puppy in his arms and said, " _Thank you_ Yancy. I'm going to call him Max, after the Headmaster. They are both really wrinkly." Bringing the puppy up to his face he kissed the little potbelly and laughed harder than any of them had seen before. It was a startling transformation and Yancy knew he was utterly doomed. He'd committed himself to being a puppy nurse, but the next 4 weeks didn't seem quite so onerous now.

"But if you think you're getting out of your reading lessons, then you're sorely mistaken." Chuck pointed to the barn. "Meet me in the hayloft in ten minutes. I'll give you extra hobble time." Chuck kissed the puppy again and Yancy was jealous of a dog. 

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

Yancy did his best to pull himself up the ladder to the hay loft. The dairy cows shuffled restlessly below. His arms certainly had gotten stronger to compensate for the crutches. Not that anyone appreciated his taut toned body here. He slithered on his belly on the hay covered floor and spat out a bit of the hay that got in his mouth.

Why the hayloft? There were easier places to get to certainly. "Was this a test? Because you're going to have to help me get back down again, I can probably shimmy down the rope, but Doc says I can't put weight on this bum leg." 

Chuck was sitting in a pile of hay with a small book in his hand. Max was snoring in his basket, tiny puppy snores that would doubtlessly grow less endearing as the critter grew. "No test, it just seems to be more comfortable." He patted the hay beside him. "Come on."

Yancy sighed, "Crawling isn't that easy for me." But he managed, he'd have crawled through broken glass to get close to Chuck, but there was no way he'd tell the lad that. "I've never seen that book before."

"It is one of my favorites. The _Iliad_. An epic tale of warriors, gods and tragedy." Chuck scooted closer to Yancy to show him the book cover, gilded and embossed leather. He took Yancy's hand and put the book in it. Yancy squinted at the letters and thrilled at the touch of Chuck's fingers. There were callouses on those city soft hands now, evidence of hard work.

"I don't think I'm up to that yet, I mean I want to be, but shucks. I am _trying_." And he was, he earnestly trying to win this boy's approval. Bettering himself was a secondary benefit. I'm no better than that puppy, Yancy thought.

"I know you are Yancy. That's why I'm going to read _to_ you." Chuck opened the book and read, "In the war of Troy, the Greeks having sacked some of the neighbouring towns, and taken from thence two beautiful captives, Chryseis and Briseis, allotted the first to Agamemnon, and the last to Achilles..." Yancy settled into the hay. Occasionally a barn cat would peer out at them with green eyes, but they weren't fascinating enough to hold a cat's attention. Yancy lounged in the warm, round confident tones of Chuck reading something that he had nearly committed to memory. 

"So," Yancy asked when Chuck took a drink from his canteen, "This Achilles fella was the best warrior the Greeks had." Yancy tried to ignore the itch of his cast and the shadows that Chuck's eyelashes cast on his cheek. He had freckles on his ear lobes that Yancy wanted to nuzzle badly, but he sat patiently and listened.

"He was golden and fierce. Invulnerable to injury save one weakness, his heel. But only the gods knew of this weakness." Chuck looked up and smirked, "And Raleigh if you want to listen you can come up here with us." Raleigh cursed, he'd been caught snooping.

"Um, no. That's okay. I was just worried about Yancy getting up there. That's it. What are you reading?" He called up.

Yancy rolled his eyes, "He's reading to me the story of a great warrior named Achilles, seems pretty good once your ears adjust to the..." he fumbled for the right word.

"Cadence." Chuck offered.

"Yeah, that's it." Sounded plausible.

"Um, I think I'll leave you to it. Thanks for the offer. Yancy be _careful_ up there." His brother's tone seemed more serious than warranted.

"Yes mother!" Yancy yelled back, irritated at being spied on.

The door to the barn closed and Max snuffled in his basket. "Always looking out for me, gets a bit annoying, doesn't it?" Yancy offered half-heartedly.

Chuck sat the book down and looked at Yancy very carefully, studying him. "He loves you a great deal. You're lucky to have a brother who cares. But yes, he can be annoying and he thinks the _worst_ of me right now." 

Yancy was confused. "Why? You haven't done anything, have you?"

"No, but I _plan_ to." Chuck quickly straddled Yancy and pushed the older man down on the floor. He pinned Yancy's wrists to the hayloft floor above his head. "I've been planning from the moment I met you Yancy."

Playing the fool was Yancy's only defense. "While this is powerful exciting, I can't wrassle. Bum leg. Remember?" Yancy swallowed and tried to force his thumping heart out of his throat.

"I wasn't planning to _wrassle_." Chuck leaned in and kissed Yancy sweetly on the cheek, Yancy was stunned. "That's for being a good student. This is for helping me with Max." Chuck captured Yancy's lips with his own and Yancy nearly stopped breathing. The very experienced man laid on the floor in shock wondering if he was dreaming.

"Funny, I used to be quite good at this. Let me try again." Sharp teeth nipped at the soft flesh of Yancy's lips and Chuck's tongue invaded his mouth. Yancy fought back with his own mouth and they dueled, neither one willing to give in for a moment. Yancy's cock swelled painfully in his pants and Chuck ground himself upon it, equally as aroused. 

"Chuck, your father is going to kill me." Yancy moaned. "And he can do it! He has guns! Lots of them!"

Chuck smiled slyly, "Do you want me more than your next breath?" Chuck raised himself up off of Yancy's prone body and slid his hands down the blonde's form. "Or are you just fluffy innuendo and longing glances?"  

"But I promised Raleigh, I promised." The whimper that Yancy uttered was bestial with longing as Chuck kissed him hard again, stoppering his protests. 

"Are you worried about my _honor_? Don't be. When I said I could take care of myself, I meant it. I've been indoctrinated into the carnal arts many times before this." 

"What the hell did they teach you at that school?" 

"Let me show you, you learn better with an example. Do you want to be my pupil Yancy?" Tracing his finger down the bridge of Yancy's nose, Chuck's eyes glittered in anticipation.

"You might need to start with the advanced courses, I'm not an amateur at this either, you know." Yancy's pride flared up, "My leg's the only part of me that's busted."

"Then you need a challenge." Chuck picked up the book and put it on Yancy's chest. "When you can read to me the first three pages, without an error mind you, then we'll _wrassle_. We'll wrassle until you beg me to let you cum." Chuck put his hand on Yancy's swollen cock and palpated its length and girth through the denim. "Gosh, I hope you're up to it. I haven't had my lips around such a pretty man's cock in ages." 

"Deal!" Yancy panted, "But could I have one more kiss to seal it?" Yancy pleaded. Chuck kissed Yancy softly and deliberately then stood up, hooked Max's basket over his arm and climbed down the hayloft ladder without another word.

"Okay fine! Don't worry about me! I'll, I'll get down somehow!" Yancy collapsed in a pile, hay dust fluttered up around him and motes danced in sunbeams from cracks in the walls. "Don't worry about me. Oh shit. Herc's gonna kill me. Possibly right after Raleigh does. Oh shit, oh shit." 

He picked up the little red book, made his choice and started sounding out the words. "In the war of Trrrroy, the Greeks having sacked..." 

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

Raleigh sulked back to the big house after being soundly humiliated by Yancy and Chuck. Two people were going to get cow shit in their boots. 

Whatever, he'd do it again. A man's got his duty, he thought. And now he couldn't even use the Achilles thing against Chuck and that smug ginger bastard knew it. He hooked his thumbs in his belt and hitched up his pants. 

Tendo was peeling carrots for a stew and looked at Raleigh. "You look like you need something to beat up." He pushed a huge gunny sack full of laundry at the glowering blonde with his foot. "Don't get your hand caught in the mangle, okay?" 

Raleigh didn't bother to reply because he did need to do something with his hands. He hoisted the bag that smelled of cow manure, sweat and miscellaneous funk, then made his way back to the bathhouse. The boiler was safer to use than the vats that Raleigh had grown up with. A little girl in town had fallen into one and died from her burns, Raleigh shook his head to clear the memory of her screams. 

He passed by Aleksis and the huge man _winked_ at him and gave him a hearty thumbs up signal. "Umm, okay buddy! Thanks?" People were so confusing. And huge. Really, really big. 

He stoked the boiler, refreshed the water and arranged the tubs. Wash with soap flake sprinkled water, beat the hell out of the stains with the beater stick and then rinse. Squeezing the water out with the mangle would be the last step before he hung them to dry in the hot, dry desert heat. He took off his blue shirt and added it to the load. He would have washed his blanket too, if he had it back.

Damn it Chuck. 

He lost himself in the honest monotony of the motions, his body was coordinated and well-made and his audience enjoyed the show. She smiled at the way he sang gospel hymns. Not at all in tune, but earnest and hearty.

"May I add something to the pile?" Sasha asked, and Raleigh startled because he hadn't hear her approach. 

"Sure, I guess." And then his jaw dropped as she shimmied out of her breeches, stripped off her blouse and stood in front of him wearing nothing but a short filmy chemise that concealed nothing.

Huh, she was a natural blonde, Raleigh thought as his mouth and brain failed to connect. 

"You look like a trout with your mouth doing that," Sasha imitated him, her lips making the mockery sensual. Raleigh took a step back and then retreated into the bath house. 

"Ma'am! Are you sure you don't want to put some clothes on?" Raleigh mashed his face with his hand, regretting running away. "And your husband is RIGHT OUT THERE!" As lovely and forward as she was, Sasha was off-limits in Raleigh's mind.

"Funny boy. Did you not see his approval?" Sasha slinked into the bathhouse building and made the same gesture as her husband had. "Not that I need his permission to sample your wares, but he knows. He is okay with it." She pressed up against him, "Such a discreet boy. I like you. I like the way you sing when you work. I like your strong hands." She grabbed his hand and placed it on her chest. "Do you not like me?" 

There was, again, the disconnect as Raleigh held the supple weight of her breast in his hand. His thumb strayed across her dusky pink nipple and a vulpine grin spread across her scarlet slash of a mouth. "So you _do_ like me. That is good." She leaned into him and kissed Raleigh until he pulled her close and folded her in his strong arms.

"Da." Raleigh said, and Sasha laughed heartily while unbuttoning the fly of his dungarees. Raleigh gave in the pleasure of her nimble fingers stroking his eager cock and sagged against the wall when she began to suckle on his earlobe, planting rough kisses down the side of his neck with abandon. 

She traced his lower lip with her tongue while Raleigh leaned into her fingers. "You know of pleasing women with your pretty mouth, yes?" Raleigh nodded, unable to speak. "Show me." She pushed down on his shoulders so he sank to his knees. Sasha wound her chemise in her hand and braced herself against the wall. 

Raleigh parted her lips with his hands while enjoying her whimpers of anticipation. He suckled and licked with no great skill, but endless enthusiasm. Then nothing mattered except the feeling of her thighs clenching against his head and of her hands entangled in his hair. She clawed at his back and muttered to him in Russian until she came shuddering against his mouth. 

He stood, supporting her weight while she recovered, " _Da_?" Raleigh cheekily said in her ear. 

In response, Sasha pulled his pants down around his ankles and wrapped her legs around his narrow hips. As she clung to him, he thrust inside her being considerate and careful until she bit his shoulder and pulled him down to the ground. Mindless rutting consumed any thoughts of decorum and her squeals of delight were intoxicating. He has the presence of mind to pull out before spilling his seed within her. 

"Good boy." Sasha patted him on the stomach like an obedient mule. "Good boy." And Raleigh merely nodded his head in agreement. 

After Sasha had cleaned up and left, hips swaying like reeds in the wind, Raleigh attempted to get back to the laundry chore. The water was stone cold, so he had to refill the tub, cursing and giggling at the same time. "Well fuck me sideways.." 

Chuck wandered by and stared at Raleigh oddly. Then he petted the puppy in his basket and said mildly, "Yancy got stuck in the hay loft." Then he stared some more and Raleigh felt like he was being cataloged.

"Why are you staring, Chucky-pants?" Raleigh felt too good to be grumpy, his toes still tingled and he wanted to take a nap right there. 

" _Chucky-pants_?"

"Give me back my damn blanket! You moocher! And you go get Yancy out of the hayloft!"

"I was going to wash it first, but okay. And Raleigh, you might want to look in the mirror." Raleigh rolled his eyes and used the communal chipped shaving mirror.

"Holy Shit!" he hollered in surprise. The side of his throat beneath his ear was red and swollen with bruises and love bites, they ringed his neck like a collar. Fingernail scratches crossed his chest in reddened weals. 

Chuck reached into the wet laundry and pulled out a bandanna, "Hold still." He tied the wet kerchief around Raleigh's neck. "The coolness will help bring down the swelling. You can button your shirt all the way up to hide the rest." 

"Thanks." Raleigh was not looking forward to Tendo's knowing smirk and far too late he understood Tendo's warning. It hadn't just been Aleksis who was dangerous. But he'd do it again.  

"Hope it was worth it." Chuck tended to his whiny mutt and Raleigh's goofy smile was all the answer he needed or was going to receive. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my distant ancestors had a twin sister and in the family bible her cause of death was listed as "boiled to death in clothes wash".
> 
> This is a mangle. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Mangle_at_the_Apprentice_House%2C_Quary_Bank_Mill.jpg/180px-Mangle_at_the_Apprentice_House%2C_Quary_Bank_Mill.jpg


	15. Chapter 15

In retrospect, Yancy had missed the gleam in Chuck's eye when he started playing with his lariat rope while trying his best to enunciate properly. His fingers worked quickly and without looking, Yancy tied a honda knot over and over again, like a priest saying the rosary. "I'm never going to get this right, am I?" He wailed despairingly and Max howled along with him. "Shush mutt! Quit agreeing with me." 

Raleigh recited with great and terrible precision,

"Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring

Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!" 

 

 

Yancy shot a glare at his brother who was laying in a hammock in the bunkhouse. "Shut up Raleigh!" He snarled.

Jin chimed in, 

 

"That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign

The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;"

Yancy gritted his teeth and pointed at Hu, "Don't you dare!" 

Hu smiled, "Wouldn't dream of it Yancy. But we all know that damn poem now and we'd appreciate you making it to page _four_."

"And soon! You're going to get your cast taken off before you can read that properly!" Cheung rolled over in his bunk and snorted. Yancy whipped his lasso at a chair across the room in frustration. It landed neatly and snugged up tight the first time. 

"At least I can do that right. Still. You all saw it!" Sleepy condescending murmurs and groans from the crew made Yancy turn scarlet. He grabbed his crutch, hobbled over to the chair and shook loose the lariat knot. "I'm... I'm going for a walk!" He didn't look at his tormenter. 

"Let me know if I need to send out a posse to find you later. Please don't get stuck in the hay loft again, okay?" Raleigh covered his face with his hat. Even the dog settled in his basket. 

"I... wasn't stuck!" Yancy muttered as he left the bunkhouse. "I just wasn't ready to come down yet!" He slammed the door and bits of old paint rained down upon him like flakes in a snowstorm.

Yancy sat down next to the corral and stared out into the darkness, glowering. He'd show them all. Once this cast came off. He prayed under his breath for the bones to have knit right so he could be whole again. Maybe Chuck would want him then. There hadn't been another incident like the hay loft, Chuck was all manners and propriety. It was enough to make a saint weep or flog his cock numb. 

"You forgot this." Chuck said from behind him. He held Yancy's rope coiled in his hand. "Are you actually good with this?" Disbelief and scorn dripped out of his lips and Yancy fumed.

"I'm better than your father with it. And he'll admit it, if you get a few drinks into him." And so far your father was a better lay than you are Chuck, Yancy thought.

"I don't believe you." Chuck needled him as he sat down.

Yancy threw a stone into the distance, "Well I can't get on a horse right now so you'll just have to trust me."

Slowly, deliberately, as if the idea had just occurred to him, Chuck asked, "Say, if I ran away from you, could you catch me?" 

"I could catch you, land you and hog tie you. But _whatever_. I still can't read all that damn poem right." Yancy was certain of all of that. A steer hadn't slipped his lasso in two years. 

"Let's see if you're as good as you think you are." Chuck poked Yancy in the ribs with his elbow.

"Are you trying to piss me off? Because you're doing a _great_ job."

"I just don't think you can do it."

Yancy hauled himself to his feet and tied a honda knot with expert efficiency. "Boy you better run!" He hollered.

He dropped the crutch and whipped the lariat about, whirling it to the side. Chuck stuck out his tongue and leisurely walked away, sauntering. And that pissed Yancy off even worse than the outright doubt.

The lasso sprang straight and true, looping around Chuck's chest. Yancy pulled hard with a strength born of resentment and festering lust. Chuck landed belly-first with a thud. Yancy hobbled over, putting weight on his cast even though he wasn't supposed to, and kept the tension tight so Chuck couldn't wriggle out. Yancy secured Chuck's hands and feet just like he would a flailing steer, with a knee in the middle of Chuck's back for good measure. "Hold still, you'll just make it tighter struggling."

Chuck wasn't speaking, only breathing hard and for a moment Yancy worried that he had hurt him. He tipped Chuck over on his side and smiled, "You believe me now?"

"Oh god, please kiss me. Kiss me please," Chuck begged with raw need heavy in his voice and glazed eyes. 

Yancy knelt down carefully and just as his lips brushed Chuck's, feather-light and sweet, he whispered, " _No_." Then he loosened the rope, grabbed his crutch and walked back to the bunkhouse without looking back. He was tired of being at Chuck's mercy, but now, now they were on a bit more of an equal footing. 

"Damn you Becket!" Chuck's frustrated cry echoed in the night and Yancy was too self-satisfied to care if anyone else heard.

 


	16. Chapter 16

Herc Hansen curled up on his cot in Tendo's room squinting at the financial books for the Station by the light of a kerosene lamp. The flame flickered and cast shadows in the corners of the room. He scribbled some notes and yawned. The cool air coming in from the window was refreshing as the silence. 

"Thanks for letting me bed down here tonight." He went back to the numbers, adding and subtracting, frowning in concentration. This wasn't the most exciting part of being foreman, but with the Captain away it was his responsibility. 

"Oh no worries. I just thought you might be a bit tired of _epic_ Greek poetry." Tendo washed his face in the basin on his dresser. "Lord knows I never thought I'd be able to recite Homer." He offered the ewer to Herc, who shook his head. "Those two are the most stubborn, mule-headed..."

Herc put his pencil down and chewed on his freckled lip. "I swear that they've got a _bet_ going on and we're just the collateral damage. Do you think I'd be forgiven if I stole that little book and dropped it down the privy?" 

Tendo averted his eyes and stifled a smile. "So your mule-headed son takes after his father and your pet project has the stubborn determination to be a good foreman. They're naturally butting heads like a couple of rams. So why does it feel like something is about to explode?"

"Too many lads in one place at the same time with not enough to do. Round up season isn't here yet. I can't put them _all_ on laundry duty." 

"I can! My shirts have never been cleaner. I did have to replace the beater stick though, someone splintered it clean in half. Maybe they can white-wash the big house." Tendo stripped off his shirt and laid on his bed in his small clothes with his arm over his eyes. "I'm going to think about the menu this week so if I start to snore, too damn bad."

" _Damn you Becket_!" Chuck's angry howl echoed across the ranch grounds shattering the quiet of the night. Herc dragged his hand down his face and rubbed his eyes wearily. He stood up and shut the window, then pulled the curtains shut. 

"I think I'll take them to Blue Romeo tomorrow. Let off some steam at Vanessa's." 

Tendo snorted. "Good idea. I'll stay here. Far away from all of you nutters." 

**

"Oh Raleigh, you're going to love Violet. She's  _aggressive._ " Jin leered. They'd never let him forget his encounter with Sasha, mostly because they all had been marked by her as well. It was a rite of passage and Raleigh was now truly one of them. "We all know you like your ladies enthusiastic."

"I like my ladies willing and unable to speak from bliss, thank you." Raleigh squared his broad shoulders and smiled. 

Chuck rolled his eyes and shot Yancy a glare. There was a light rope burn around Chuck's wrist. Yancy rubbed his lariat rope between his fingers, checking for any nicks or defects. Chuck watched his fingers out of the corner of his eye and gripped his reins a little tighter. "You're not supposed to be riding." 

"Well how else am I going to get to my doctor?" Raleigh had helped gerry rig a stirrup for his plaster cast, and Yancy felt better than he had in months. He suppressed the urge to push Gipsy, to gallop as fast as he could. The mare tossed her head, "Oh yes, I've missed this too girl. You've gotten all soft and spoiled." He patted her affectionately.  "Blue Romeo is the only town where there's a saloon with a sawbones in the back." 

"Cheap rent?" Chuck asked.

"Dr. Gottleib is married to Vanessa, the proprietress." Herc clarified. 

"Why would a doctor marry a _whore_?" Chuck scrunched his face in distaste and Yancy pressed his lips together in a thin hard line. 

" _Love_ , Chuck. They married for _love_." Herc's voice dripped with disapproval and Chuck looked down at his hands, flushed red to the tips of his ears.

Yancy clucked his tongue to Gipsy and urged his mare faster. He needed a drink, badly. The rest of the group followed his lead with Chuck at the rear. 

**

 


	17. Chapter 17

 

"Darlings! So good to see you all! Welcome to Horizon Brave." Vanessa Gottleib descended upon them with a smile that lit up her face and welcomed them at the same time. Her modest dress was brown and blue calico that set off her dark eyes and caramel skin.

"Hercules, looking as statuesque as your namesake, as always." She held his hand and Herc kissed one of them with a little bow. "If I weren't a married woman, I'd have you bound and dragged to the chapel." She flirted and Herc laughed while Chuck looked uncomfortable.

"And Yancy, my pet. You sit down this _minute_ ," Yancy doffed his hat and obediently sat at the bar. He liked Vanessa, she'd pegged him for a hustler from the moment they met. She'd dragged him into her husband's office and insisted on a full check up at no cost. 

"If you insist! Always a pleasure to be in your presence Ms. Gottlieb. Your hair looks particularly stunning." Vanessa smiled indulgently at him, patted his arm and moved to her next guest.

"Jin. Hu. Cheung." Violet, Virginia and Velvet are upstairs with hot towels and full tubs. Do you care to join them?" First a hot bath and a shave, then a little romance if the boys were up to it. Hu had fallen asleep once and woken up with red make-up rouged cheeks, and not the ones on his face. 

"Yes Ma'am!" The brothers deeply bowed in unison, just like they were on stage at the circus, doffed their hats and nearly trampled each other getting up the stairs. 

" _Boys_." Vanessa sighed. "And there are two new handsome faces that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting." She inclined her head at Raleigh and extended her hand. 

"Rali--" He began to introduce himself when Yancy interrupted.

"That's my kid brother, Raleigh. He's a bit innocent of the ways of the world." Yancy hoped that Vanessa caught his meaning. 

"Yancy!" Raleigh frowned, "Sorry. You have a nice place here. You have wallpaper." He added with a gesture at the walls. Yancy smiled into his hand at his brother.  

"And this is my son, Chuck." Herc clapped Chuck on the shoulder. "Out from back East."

'Ma'am. It is a pleasure." Chuck smoothly doffed his hat, "I have heard much of your hospitality and beauty. Reports were greatly understated." Yancy bit his lip and held his peace. He was still pissed off at last night's roping practice and now bitterness tinged his feelings because Chuck had a problem with whores. He should just forget any hope of Chuck reciprocating his feelings because simple lust couldn't make his heart hurt this bad. 

The triplets ran down the stairs, missing their hats, neckerchiefs and at least one shirt and they grinned devilishly. "Sorry, we forgot something!" Then they picked Raleigh up and hauled him bodily up the stairs as he weakly protested. Doors slammed upstairs and Herc coughed into his hand.  

"Sit down, relax. Maybe play a round or two? We even have the newspaper from about two weeks ago if you'd like to catch up on current events." Vanessa continued smoothly as if such things happened daily.  And perhaps they did.

Chuck looked over at the corner of the saloon where a piano sat. "May I use your piano? I haven't practiced in months." Herc looked at his son curiously, as if he hadn't known that he played. 

"Of course. Yancy, if you'd come with me?" Yancy wanted to stay to listen, but he was swept along with Vanessa to the doctor's office. She was an irresistible force of nature in starched crinolines and he limped along in her wake. 

"WHERE IS YOUR CRUTCH!" Dr. Gottleib bellowed. His glasses fell off his nose. 

"I'll leave you to your consultation." Vanessa shut the door behind her. 

"Leaning up against the corral where I left it." Blinking mildly, Yancy tried to look as innocent as he could. "Please take this cast off, Doctor. Please." He sat down in a chair.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" The doctor opened his desk drawer and removed some horrible looking shears.

"I've gotten a taste of the open range and if I had to go back to being an invalid, I'd probably shoot myself in the head." The innocent smile was gone and a hint of something dark flickered in Yancy's eyes. 

Dr. Gottlieb stared him down. "I'll take that as hyperbole and not a threat."

"Take it as you want." He nodded at his foot. "Just take off the cast."

"You'll be weak, wizened like your grandfather's corpse. You'll have to coddle your leg until the muscle tone returns. I'll send you to the apothecary to get a cream for the crunchy, crispy skin. This is also going to smell terrible. Drop trou, please."

"Usually I ask for at least two-bits when a man tells me that." Yancy obliged and used his hat to cover his groin. 

The doctor made a sour face and pulled out a chisel and mallet. "You are  _very_ cheap then."

"So...  I've been... told." Yancy gritted his teeth as the good doctor set up on his cast with vigor. He could heard a lovely piano concerto from the main room. Occasionally Chuck would hit a sour note and swear at his fingers, then start again. Yancy thought that was apt, just when things were going smoothly between them something would turn sharp or flat and they'd start all over again. It must be all that Homer, he wasn't usually that introspective. "So Doc, have you ever heard the first three pages of the _Illiad_?"  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa always sounds like Gina Torres in my head.  
> Um, are you guys still reading?


	18. Chapter 18

Chuck's nimble fingers danced over the the keys coaxing a melody from the neglected piano. Then he frowned and started playing something darker, more gothic with sharps and flats, with discordant clashing motifs. The melody changed into a more somber composition for a few beats until Chuck remembered that he had an audience, then the tempo changed to something more joyful, more pleasing. Herc and Vanessa listened to him play, attentive and polite. 

"He's very good," Vanessa murmured. "If he needs a job I'd offer him one here. My last player took off for the silver mines." It was hard to keep good employees when new gold and silver strikes, but the girls trusted Vanessa. 

"He is, isn't he? Funny, he never mentioned that he learned how to play. His mother and I couldn't afford to pay for the lessons." Herc took a sip from his coffee and leaned against the bar. Herc regretted not being able to do more for Chuck, that he hadn't watched him grow up. But guilt and regret were constant companions of Herc's and they didn't need to be focused on all the time or he'd go raving mad.

"So he's resourceful. Perhaps he did tutoring work or had a job?" Vanessa cleaned a glass and stacked it behind the bar. Herc knew for a fact that glassware wasn't the only thing there, he'd given her a shotgun as a thank you gift for taking Yancy under her wing. "You could always ask, you are his father."

"A man needs his privacy. Besides, I haven't seen him so relaxed and happy in a long time." There was a hint of the little boy that Herc had bounced on his knee and played horsie with in Chuck's rare smile. 

"Doesn't Stacker have a piano?" 

"No one touches Miss Mori's piano in the parlor. I dust the thing and hope it doesn't bite me."

"When will they be back?" The immaculate counter got a touch up.

"Not sure. I don't think he's having a lot of luck getting a school to take her. Damn fools." Herc sipped his coffee. 

"Oh I understand," Vanessa's lips curled in a rueful smile. "But I admire them for trying. Sometimes I forget that people out here are more accepting because everyone needs each other more. The cities are different, more hateful because they can be arrogant like that. Give me a tiny town in the middle of the desert where people call me Ma'am and don't sneer at me because Hermann saved their child's life."

"Damn right. You know how I feel about cities. But I don't think Chuck agrees with me. He's city folk like his mother." And that wasn't a bad thing, was it? You couldn't force an orchid raised in a hothouse to become a cactus even if Chuck was naturally prickly.

"If you hadn't told me where he was from, I never would have guessed until he spoke. It looks like he's changed more than you've noticed, Hercules." She asked under her breath, "How long has he been together with Yancy?" 

Herc started coughing so hard that Chuck stopped playing and Vanessa had to slap him on the back. "What? No. No." 

Vanessa smiled winsomely, "Oh I apologize, I just assumed from the way Yancy looks at him, never mind. Have a second cup on the house, love." 

Herc was about to protest that he'd forbidden any such poaching of his child and that Yancy damn well knew better when a terrible crash sounded in Hermann's office. Vanessa, Herc and Chuck dashed to discover the cause, flinging open the door. 

Hermann stood with his arms folded over Yancy's face-down body. He shook his head in disappointed exasperation. "I told you, you didn't listen. _Of_ _course_ you didn't listen. You'll need to use a crutch still and later a cane." Yancy struck the floor with his fist, white plaster dust plumed in a tiny cloud and pushed himself up to look at his doctor. His lip was swollen and split, he ran his tongue over the fissure. "To the apothecary you go." Hermann ripped a piece of paper off and handed it to Yancy. "Vanessa, I will need the broom please." 

"So do I crawl there?" Yancy angrily asked. His leg was bound in a bandaged splint and he couldn't bear weight on it yet. His clothes were dusted with plaster, bits of cast in his blonde hair flew everywhere when he tousled it. 

"Let me help." Chuck's soft reply softened Yancy's anger momentarily, but he quickly recovered. "Let me." Yancy took the outstretched hand and Chuck hauled him to his feet, then slung Yancy's arm over his shoulder. "Where is the pharmacy?" 

"It's not a pharmacy, I know the way." Together they slowly moved, Chuck supporting Yancy's weight when he needed to, arm curled around Yancy's waist like it belonged there. 

"What a darling friendship. They look so cute together." Vanessa chirped at Herc. 

You couldn't tell a lady to shut up, but Herc sure wanted to. "I think I'll take a shot in my next coffee Vanessa." 

**

"Do you need to rest?" Chuck asked Yancy. It was a courtesy question, Yancy was shaking with the effort of moving and Chuck was bearing most of his weight. 

Red-faced with exertion, "I don't need your pity Chuck Hansen." Yancy gritted his teeth. 

"I'm keeping you from hitting your head. That lip looks painful. I'm  _not_  pitying you."

"Oh you do it all the time. I'm just a distraction until you can haul ass out of here."

Chuck was silent. At one time Yancy would have savored the contact of Chuck's body, the scent of his skin, but now he snapped, "You don't like me, you're just toying with me and I'm tired of it. I've been used all my life and I'm not going to take it from you. Not anymore."

"I do like you Yancy. I really like you." Chuck pulled him closer to his side, fingers stroking Yancy's waist and they paused for a moment to absorb the momentum of that confession. 

"Well you are SHIT at showing it. And it'd never work out. You couldn't deal with my past."

"What do you mean? I don't care about that thing that my father told me, you know with both of the pastor's kids?"

"It wasn't both of them. I was, _involved_ with Matthew and Mary couldn't understand why I'd choose him over her. So she messed it all up and I got ran out of town. I had to leave Raleigh behind and just run. And I had to do things to pay my way out West. Things you clearly don't approve of or even understand!"

"I don't..." Chuck sputtered.

Yancy threw caution to the wind, "Who could marry a whore, you asked. Who could love a hustler? That's right Chuck, I'm a former whore. Well, Mr. High and Mighty, some of us have had to sell what we had just to survive and I can't deal with your judgmental bullshit. There's the apothecary. Thanks for helping me, I'll manage from here." Yancy tried to pull away from Chuck, but the young man wouldn't let him. His grip around Yancy's waist was too strong, iron bands on a barrel.  

"You'll fall again." Chuck stated matter of factly and opened the door in front of him. "I said, _let me help_. You're so stubborn." 

"Fine. But we're finished after this. We're _done_. I'll crawl back to my horse if I have to. You can't trample on..." Yancy paused, then spit out the words, "You can't trample on my heart anymore Chuck Hansen. I don't give my _love_ lightly now. Your father taught me that I'm more than that." Chuck flinched and Yancy was smugly satisfied to have elicited a visceral reaction. He didn't think to question which part of his ultimatum caused Chuck to react...

 

 

 

 

 

 


	19. Chapter 19

The dark, dingy apothecary shop wasn't somewhere people went unless they were in dire need. There were no shelves stacked with amber brown bottles of potions and tinctures, no tins of pills or porcelain mortars in pestles. The walls were covered in dried bits of unfortunate animals, braided coils of herbs and clusters of strange mushrooms. The air smelled sour, medicinal and dusty. The counter held glass jars with swimming fish and tadpoles, frogs flung themselves against the glass.

"What the hell? What kind of a pharmacy is this?" Chuck uttered, flabbergasted.

"It is an apothecary shop, young man. I can see that you're stunned at the vastness of my collection. Each specimen is prime and full of potency!" The proprietor popped out from behind a precariously stacked pile of buffalo hides. "I guarantee that my wares will end your suffering!" He was a very tall, grey bearded man wearing a red brocade robe.

"Is that your fancy way of saying that you're going to kill us, Mr. Chau?"  Yancy said sourly. He handed the prescription to the bearded man.

"Only if you take this orally. You'll need to use it as a poultice on your leg. Are you sure I can't interest you in my special male-potency pills? Prime bear penis powder covered in a candy shell! Goes down smooth, helps you please the ladies?" He leered over the smoked lens of his glasses.

"Stop trying to sell candy-coated bear penis to me!" Chuck didn't have the decency not to smile.

"Well, you can just wait outside then. I'll have this ready when I  _feel_  like it! Out!" Mr. Chau whipped out a thin stiletto blade and stabbed it into the counter to make his point. "There's a bench out there. Don't collapse on my floor, I just waxed it." 

Sitting on the bench, Yancy buried his face in his hands and sighed heavily. "He _always_ offers me the bear penis.  _Always_." 

"Well you don't need it, from what I've observed." Chuck replied lightly.

"Have you been spying on me?" Yancy hunched over and rested his arms on his knees, too tired to fight.

"The walls of the bunkhouse aren't exactly well constructed." Chuck leaned back and stared at the dusty street. "And you're wrong by the way."

"About the bear dick pills? Hell no!" 

"No, you're wrong about me not understanding your past." Chuck had Yancy's full attention. "I may have," he gritted his teeth and continued,"Brokered a deal for my musical education." He looked at Yancy with fear and hope warring on his face, swallowing hard.

"You sold your ass for piano lessons? Damn, you must really love playing." Yancy licked his split lip and winced at the sting. "I did it for room and board. And fun, of course. God, I was enthusiastic about my work, I just wasn't very good at setting prices. So are you just a hustler or are you as bewildered by women as I am?" Yancy put his hand on Chuck's, Chuck's fingers dug into his denim-clad thighs. 

The quiet of the street seemed to amplify Chuck's soft acknowledgment. "The fairer sex holds no interest for me and I'm not sure that my father will understand that. I don't have anywhere else to go. Our money ran out after mum got sick and the Headmaster kicked me out because he got tired of me. I got too old." Chuck hunched over and rubbed his face. "Now I've fucked everything up."

"Oh, I think you underestimate your daddy. I know you underestimate me." 

"I-- have a confession. You're going to hate me." Chuck hung his head. "I don't want you to hate me."

"If you're in love with my brother, that's okay. Everyone loves Raleigh, it's like he's part puppy, all smiles and enthusiasm. He is, however, straighter than an Apache arrow, so don't get your hopes up." Yancy was being flippant, but there was painful truth in his jest.

"No--." Chuck shook his head, "Raleigh's too sweet, I can't play games with him without him looking at me like a wounded... I'm not a nice person, Yancy. I get off on manipulating people, controlling them."

"I've noticed. You've played me like a three-dollar fiddle."

"I thought you were like me, that you knew the game I was playing. That you liked being teased and tormented, then returning the favor like some of my classmates did. You started calling me those pet names and leering at me and you're so damn good looking and I got carried away. Anyway, Yancy, I'm _sorry_."

"Well that's the first time I've ever heard those particular words come out of your mouth. _Sweet_ _Cheeks_." Yancy threw in the pet name just to ratchet down some of the tension, but Chuck shook his head.

"You've been reading flawlessly for the last 3 weeks. I just, I thought that if I came through on the deal, then you would get tired of me and I'd be alone out here. People don't want me around for the long haul, I'm smug and obstinate, but I'm _sorry_." Chuck snatched back his hand. "Truly sorry."

Yancy started shaking with laughter, deep joyful laughs that made his ribs ache with effort. When he caught his breath, he looked up at Chuck with the sweetest smile.

But Chuck didn't wait to hear what Yancy had to say. He flushed red, leapt up from his seat and ran as fast away as he could. At that moment, Mr. Chau stepped out of his shop and handed a stunned Yancy a paper-wrapped parcel. 

"Here you go, I've added it to Foreman Hansen's tab. Why's your friend running off like a spooked jack-rabbit? Hemorrhoids? I've got some suppositories for that..."

 Yancy hauled himself to his feet. "Sir, if you can help me get to my horse then I will buy every single bear-dick pill that you have in stock!"

"Well, hop on over little fella," Mr. Chau half-carried, half-dragged Yancy along the wooden sidewalk. Yancy winced at the shocks and thuds, but he had to catch Chuck. Mr. Chau helped Yancy mount with a great deal of cursing and once he was on Gipsy, Yancy flipped the apothecary a silver dollar. 

"What's going on out here?" Herc and Vanessa stepped out of the saloon to see what the commotion was. "Yancy? Where's Chuck's horse?"

"Sir! I love your fucking bone-head of a son and I have to catch him!" Yancy spurred Gipsy and took off like a shot. Clouds of dust billowed and settled in the street.

Herc stood in front of the Horizon Brave in pole-axed silence until Vanessa took his arm and guided him back inside. "Let's have another drink, shall we Hercules? On the house." 

 

 

 

 

 


	20. Chapter 20

Chuck Hansen didn't know where he was going and he didn't care. He spurred Striker and just kept riding away from Blue Romeo, away from his father, away from the crew and most importantly, away from Yancy.

That, that blonde buffoon, Chuck thought uncharitably. But that was impotent anger lashing out, bleak despair and plain old fear. He was so ashamed of the fear. What should he care? He'd had more affairs, more flings than he wanted to count, but none of them felt as precarious, as fragile and precious as this one. 

He wasn't supposed to care about Yancy Becket. 

Wasn't supposed to crave the attention, the jokes, the gently mocking slights that Yancy never hesitated to deliver. As sure as the sun rose each morning, Yancy would look at him like he was worthy, like he was something special. And he wasn't. He wasn't redeemable. 

He had laughed. Yancy had laughed at him. He apologized, he bared his soul and that dunderhead had _laughed_. Tears streamed down Chuck's face and he hated Yancy for being the cause of his weakness. This was never going to work. He didn't belong out here. He was supposed to be in a city, designing cities and playing his secret music where no one could hear. It felt like his life had been on hold since his Mother died. What ever life he deserved, he just didn't know.

Alone, alone again. Alone with his brutal self-loathing and cynical pride. 

Herc talked about falling in love with the land, and for a few moments out on the range Chuck had understood. The rocks and stunted trees had a strange beauty next to the vast, endless blue sky. You could lay on your back and see sky forever, clear and clean. The stars glimmered bright as paste diamonds at night. The smell of campfires, horses and honest sweat, the joking laughter from the crew, but no. There was no place for him here. 

Why did he tell Yancy about his relationship with the Headmaster? Why was it so important for Yancy to know that Chuck didn't judge him, didn't despise him for his choices? 

Chuck was so wrapped up in his own misery that he didn't notice Yancy closing distance fast behind him. Gipsy ate up the ground with every stride. Yancy whistled a piercing whistle and Striker slowed suddenly to a walk. His lasso sped through the air and pinned Chuck's arms to his side. "Sonofabitch!" Chuck swore in shock. He looked back at Yancy with a mixture of woe and yearning.

"I could catch you, land you and hog tie you, Sweet Cheeks. I told you I could." Gipsy sidled up beside Striker. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I-- I had to get out of there." I had to get away from you and the future that I've destroyed any hope of having, Chuck thought. "And you laughed. You laughed at me. I told you my secret and you _laughed_!" 

Yancy rubbed his face and let the rope slacken. "That wasn't laughing at _you_ , that was laughing at _myself_ for being a rock-headed jackass! Jesus Christ Chuck, I was so damn relieved that you didn't despise _me_ for what _I'd_ done." 

Yancy took off his hat, "And for one thing you're five miles in the _wrong_ direction. The only things out there are rattlesnakes and rocks." He gestured with his hat at the horizon, his voice gradually raising in volume, "If you vanish out there in the boonies there's going to a whole lot of worried sick people who will miss your sorry ginger ass and one little dog that's going to whine every goddamned night until he gets to sleep on your chest and drool down the side of your neck. Which is what _I_ should be doing, but I'm a _gentleman_ and I will not be jealous of a dog!"

Chuck blinked, trying to process all of Yancy's ranting, "What?"

"And I might have confessed that I love you to _your father_ as I was hauling ass to get out here. So, yeah. There's that! If I don't bring you back then Herc is going to kill me with those sad, sad blue eyes and I just can't handle that. You're all he has left,  _you asshole,_ and he forbade me to even _consider_ making a move on you, but do I listen? No! Because you look at me with those big green eyes and my knees go weak and I want to bake biscuits with you and churn all the god fucking damned butter for the rest of our lives!"

"And Raleigh will be so pissed off at me that he won't speak to me again and that's just not right and goddamnit CHUCK. I read that fucking poem right for three weeks and you promised me! I've been dreaming about you every fucking night and if I can't have you, I don't know what I'll do! And, and, I'm stuck on this horse until I can find someone to help me down because my damn leg is still fucked up, but I will drag you back to the Station by my teeth if I have to, because Chuck fucking Hansen you make my life so much hell and I goddamn _love_ you for it."

Yancy tugged loose the lariat and it fell limply to the ground. "So _please,"_  he pleaded with tears in his eyes, "Don't run away from me. I'll just have to catch you again."

"You don't know what you're asking for." Chuck's pulse beat thunderously loud in his ears and he could hardly breathe. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. He leaned over to Yancy and grabbed a fist full of his calico shirt, then kissed him softly. The kiss surged in intensity and passion, the split in Yancy's lip must have stung, but he didn't react other than to lean in closer, until he had to cling to the saddle horn with one hand to avoid falling.

"I'm asking for _you_ , you big galoot. You and just you. With all of your thorns and spikes, you ginger cactus. If I don't fall off Gipsy and break my other leg, that is." Yancy smiled with hope and kindness in his eyes. "Damn it Chuck, why couldn't you have ridden that way, towards the Station then we'd be closer to the hayloft. I've got some epic poetry that I want to share with you." Yancy's guileless blue eyes matched the sky and Chuck found himself lost in them, perhaps that's what _falling in love with the land_ meant. Then he shook himself and tried to regain some composure. 

"You still have to do lessons, you know that. You won't get any special privileges." His serious tone was marred by a twinkle in his eye as they set off towards the Station at a slow lope.

"I reckon that you'll enjoy the lessons I can teach you, Sweet Cheeks. There's other kinds of fun knots that can be tied than just a lasso." Yancy winked and Chuck knew that he was caught, landed and hog-tied and that he'd never want to run away again. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hay is terribly pokey and not the best place for romance. I wonder if Chuck ever returned Raleigh's blanket...?


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was going to use this as the intro to part 2, but after sleeping on it, it works a lot better as a conclusion for part 1. Thanks for reading! I promise more.

Raleigh Becket stumbled out of the Horizon Brave with a goofy smile, off kilter hat and a shirt that probably belonged to one of the Wei brothers. Luckily, he'd found his boots under a discarded crinoline, but the travel dust was going to travel down his shirt without his neckerchief.

Velvet had magical fingers, strong and probing. He'd have paid double just for the full body massage even without the special ending. Too bad she never took off her dress. She said she was shy like that and Raleigh respected her wishes. There had been a whisper of stubble against his most tender skin, but her mouth was eager and talented. Raleigh had left an extra greenback in her bedside ewer as a token of his appreciation.

He didn't even try to put a hand up her skirt when she kissed the side of his neck, right in the same place that Sasha had marked. There was something to be said for a little tenderness after being ravaged and scarred. Sasha's nails had raked thin red weals down the outside of his right biceps that he'd carry for a good long time.

He felt like whistling and whooping with joy at the same time. He exchanged knowing glances with Cheung who snorted with raucous laughter. There were things that happened in that brothel that he'd never breathe a word of, not even the time when he caught Jin blissfully giving Violet a foot rub.

"She's had a very long day!" Jin had protested when Raleigh had raised an eyebrow. "Shut up and shut the door!"

"That's my shirt Rals." Cheung poked Raleigh in the shoulder and handed over his missing blue neckerchief. "Give it back."

"I'm keeping it until I find mine. Can't be wandering all over the town half-nekkid." Raleigh sauntered over to Herc who was already mounted and tapping his fingers on his saddlehorn impatiently. "Have you seen Yancy or Chuck? Wasn't paying much attention for a while, but I think I lost them? If you could lose someone in this place. Seems like I managed it."

Herc harshly grunted in response and even in his deliriously happy condition Raleigh took a step back. "Okay?" Raleigh went in search of his missing shirt and located it on Hu. They exchanged garments and laughed uproariously at the lipstick print on Hu's chest.

"You're all just jealous that you didn't get a pretty souvenir." Hu protested.

"Y'all settle up with Vanessa?" Herc asked, distracted and twitchy. The lads nodded, their wallets a bit lighter but still gratefully grinning.

A tall grey bearded man clad in a crimson brocade robe hurried towards them, flapping his arms. "Foreman, your man forgot his prescriptions!" He handed a brown paper wrapped parcel to Herc, who frowned and tossed it to Hu. The triplets took one look at the characters scribbled on the package and turned beet red with suppressed glee. They handed it carefully to Raleigh with very smug smiles.

"He's your brother, you should take this to him. Make sure he tells you exactly what it does."

Raleigh shrugged and put the package in his saddlebag. "What is it?"

The apothecary beamed with pride and crossed his massive arms, "A leg poultice and every last one of my special compounded bear penis male potency and vigor pills. You let him know that that prescription is prime and super potent. The love of his life won't be able to sit down or walk straight for at least a week! You have my personal guarantee!"

Herc closed his eyes, muttered "Fucking hell," then wheeled Eureka about. He set off down the Main Street at a gallop, leaving the lads to mount and follow his cloud of dust.

There wasn't a lot of chatter on the long ride back to Shatterdome Station, but the unspoken tension was palpable. Raleigh didn't dare to look at Herc even sideways, the tall red-headed man rode glowering, his hands wound white-knuckle tight in the reins. The triplets spoke in Chinese occasionally, impossible for Raleigh to understand, but their faces were alight with anticipation.

He was happy to see that Striker and Gipsy were munching feed contently at the stable, they were clean and rubbed down to glossy gleams. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Herc bellowed at the top of his lungs, "YANCY! CHUCK!" There was no answer. "Where the hell are those two hiding?"

"Try the hayloft," Cheung offered. "Sometimes they get stuck up there."

"Reading. They get stuck up there reading." Raleigh hastily qualified, but Herc was in no mood to be placated. He shook a finger at Raleigh in mute rage, teeth clenched and stormed off in a huff.

"Should we follow?" asked Hu.

"I dunno, he's armed and I don't want to get in the way." Jin moaned.

"Look we just have to, okay? We made bets, damn it!" Cheung said, but they lingered behind. Something about the set of Herc's shoulders warned them to stay a safe distance away.

Raleigh had already followed Herc regardless, sensing that Yancy had yet again ruined their chances at making this their home. "Yancy, you idiot!" Raleigh muttered under his breath, as Herc climbed the hayloft ladder so fast that dust fell from the ceiling timbers. Raleigh followed and poked his head up over the edge of the floor like a gopher peeping out of a hole.

Yancy was asleep with his hat over his face, the little red Iliad book upended beside his elevated swaddled leg. Chuck was using Yancy's stomach as a pillow, dozing on his back. Max snored on top of Chuck's chest. The trio looked angelically innocent if you didn't know what Chuck said in his sleep.  
  
"Becket!" Herc roared. Yancy startled awake, dumping Chuck's head on the hayloft floor. Max tumbled off and whined in complaint before curling back up in a puppy ball.

"Jesus," Yancy mumbled, but then froze as he seemed to remember something. Yancy's guilty expression made Raleigh's heart plummet into the pit of his stomach. What did he do this time?

"Ouch." Chuck rubbed the back of his head. "What's wrong?"

"Why the hell did the two of you go tearing off like that? I've been worried sick! You don't know your way around out there, Chuck. If Yancy hadn't went after you, we might have lost you for good! And Yancy, I thought I'd made myself crystal clear about your intentions towards my son!" Herc knelt on the rough hewn wood loft and nearly smacked his head on an exposed joist beam. "You can't... you just can't do that!"

Yancy sputtered, "Wait-- I know I said some stuff back in town-- I never intended this--" His mouth worked as if to form words that never coalesced. Raleigh gripped the ladder tightly and planned how he could hoist Yancy if they needed to make a break for it. As much as he loved working here and would desperately miss his new friends, he was never going to be separated from his brother again.

Chuck calmly interrupted, "I had hoped to discuss this in private, but since you insist on debating the matter, let's establish some basic truths." His voice was steely, his hands curled into fists upon his thighs as he sat across from his kneeling father. "The moment that I threw that last handful of dirt upon my mother's casket that I paid for, I was no longer beholden to you or anyone else. I am of age, Father, and I can choose to associate with whomever I please."

"But!" Herc sputtered impotently. "But I--"

"Mother knew. She understood that I was different. She cried a little for the loss of future grandchildren, but eventually that was no longer her cross to bear. She never told you, did she? Never told you about my adventures in scholastic exchange? She didn't want to worry you or make you come charging back to rescue me. All heroic and self-sacrificing." Chuck sneered a bit at that notion. "She said that you'd die in the city, that it would choke the life right out of you. And she loved you too much to doom you to that."

Chuck reached out for Yancy's hand and squeezed it tight, as if to absorb strength from the older man. Yancy squeezed back and smiled in spite of his fear. "The Headmaster wasn't just my teacher, he was my benefactor and at times, my  _pimp_."

Herc's answer was an incoherent groan of anguish as he leaned over and slammed his gloved fist into the wooden loft. His face hardened and he choked out, "I'll fucking kill him." He hadn't been there for his child, he hadn't been there to protect him and now it was too late. All he could do was try to pick up the pieces, attempt to mend the chasm of lost chances and regret that separated them.

Raleigh froze, a mute witness, unable to comfort the man he respected so much.

"For a great many years, I've known that I am only able to love other men. I've accepted it. Can you?" Chuck's usual defiance was there, but the way he dropped his chin a little and looked away from Herc made Raleigh feel sorry for him. Chuck would have punched him in the face and kicked him in the ribs if he saw a hint of that pity.  
  
"And stop blaming this on Yancy, he's honest about his desires but he wouldn't have touched me because he respects you too much. I seduced him. Frankly, his devotion to you makes him more like your son than I am..." Yancy winced at that statement because it struck very close to home for both of the Becket boys. They didn't have family except for each other and those who had chosen to be their kin. Herc most certainly was kin. "You made yourself a new family out here, I was hoping that there was a place for me in it. Was I wrong?"

"And why wouldn't you be happy for me? You've taken Yancy on as your right hand, groomed him to take over when you can no longer ride. Does it hurt your pride to know that your son is a former catamite? Is it as simple as that?" Chuck rubbed his face and slumped as if a great weight lay across his shoulders.

"A  _what_? Jesus Chuck, I-I just don't want you to get hurt. Not any more! He's older than you are boy, you just don't know..." Herc struggled. He clearly wanted to pull Chuck into his arms and sob, asking for forgiveness, but the time for reconciliation was past. Herc wanted to explain further, but doing so would reveal Yancy's past and their shared indiscretion. And Yancy stared with wide blue eyes, mutely pleading with him to not say anything in front of Raleigh. 

Herc sighed, he wasn't heartless and God knew that he'd done things that he'd take to his own grave. "I, I understand. I do." It wasn't his place to expose Yancy, the young man would have to make his own peace with his brother. "Chuck, I lov-- Damn it boy! Just don't let it interfere with your jobs or I'll turn both of you out on your ears.  _Understand_?"

"Yes sir!" Yancy yelped. Chuck nodded in agreement, eyes never leaving his father's face.

"Good. I need a goddamn drink. And to shoot things. Maybe at the same time. Shove over Becket." Raleigh moved over so Herc could climb down the ladder.

Raleigh peeped over the edge of the floor, rested his chin on his arms and asked, "So, are you two together? Like as a couple?"

Yancy shrugged and smiled affectionately at his brother's query. Chuck rolled his eyes and threw a clump of hay at Yancy, while still holding his hand. They were hopeless. Smitten and hopeless. Well time would tell how long that would last. Yancy wasn't known for his faithfulness and Chuck had a quick temper plus a tongue that could blister paint.

Raleigh snorted, "Then tell your boyfriend that I want my blanket back! And be careful, he drools like fountain in his sleep. Just like his dog." Chuck scowled at the accusation that he was less than perfect and petted Max.

"I have yet to see evidence of that. _Can't wait._ " Yancy ruffled Chuck's hair affectionately and got another clod of hay in the face for his trouble. Yancy leaned over and pulled Chuck into a tender kiss, then tucked a handful of hay down the back of Chuck's shirt. The ginger lad yelped and quickly shucked his shirt, shaking out the itchy hay. "Don't disrepect your elders, we're crafty!"

"Yeah, I'll be going now because I do  _not_  want to see where this is heading. You're on your own getting out of the loft, Yancy. Might not want to piss him off too much." Raleigh climbed down the ladder. He'd best go check on Herc, maybe grab Tendo to come along if there was booze and bullets involved.

Yancy laughed, his voice muffled from above. "But he's so cute when he's blushing-- ow! Ow! Wounded man here! I'm fragile, damn it! Okay, you asked for it!" Random thuds and thumps punctuated with cursing shook loose dust from the rafters. 

Outside the barn, Raleigh heard the triplets arguing.

"No win! No one got shot, stabbed or punched."  
"I can't believe that you'd be so, so, so you about this!"  
"I really thought Yancy was going to be missing some teeth."

So did I, thought Raleigh. So did I.


End file.
